Rachel wrote: ''I like Gonneke's laktatiekundige, but I prefer the word
vroedvrouw to verloskundige for
"midwife-- wise woman, not delivery-competent.

The name vroedvrouw was changed into verloskundige when men entered the
profession! The same change in name took place when men entered the nursing
profession. That changed from verpleegster (which is a feminine word) to
verpleegkundige. It did lift the status of the profession and the salary. Same
happened with Kindergarten teachers, tho it didn't take Arnold Schwarzenegger to
get men into that profession :-)

''If I am not mistaken, verloskundige refers to midwives and
''obstetricians both, but vroedvrouw is only a midwife.

No, don't think so. In The Netherlands three professionals are qualified to
''do'' deliveries: midwifes, gynecologists and family drs. I've never heard of
any gyn referring to him/herself as a verloskundige, because that's waaaay below
their status.

I do agree with that vroedvrouw is more what a midwife should be than a
verloskundige, but the latter does give the profession a higher status in the
medical world and thus will lactatiekundige be seen as a similar levelled
profession.

Gonneke van Veldhuizen, IBCLC, Maaseik, Belgium
http://www.users.skynet.be/eurolac
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