Birth & Midwifery in Belgium
RESOURCES FOR PARENTS AND PRACTITIONERS

Connect with many more midwives and birth enthusiasts from around the world by joining IAM, the International Alliance of Midwives!

Some of the following sites may not be in English; an online translator may be useful.

Midwifery Today Country Contacts

Lieve Huybrechts, Lisette Geerdens and Veerle Bekaert

Lieve Huybrechts has been a midwife since 1980. After working in a hospital delivery ward for almost 20 years, she became disenchanted with the medicalisation of birth and became an independent midwife in 1999. She now assists with approximately 60 homebirths a year, teaches prenatal classes, and provides postpartum care and breastfeeding counseling. She is actively involved with the independent midwives of Belgium and works to facilitate natural birth and breastfeeding, among other activities.

Lisette Geerdens is a midwife in pre-retirement, after being coordinator of midwifery education for more than 30 years. She has been editor-in-chief of the Flemish Journal for Midwives for more than 10 years. For the past three years she has tried to integrate the findings of prenatal and perinatal psychology in midwifery practice. She gives lectures about "having a good birth" from the point of view of the newborn baby and making parents aware of their rights, such as not letting their child be taken away for whatever reason.

Veerle Bekaert is a mother of five chidren and an independent midwife who tries to promote natural birth by giving counseling in breastfeeding and empowering women before, during and after birth. She has started her own birth center. Veerle says of the Midwifery Today international conferences she has attended: "It was such a relief to feel among sisters with the same goal, the best for parents and child!"

To contact Lieve Huybrechts, Lisette Geerdens and Veerle Bekaert or any other Midwifery Today Country Contact, please log in to the International Alliance of Midwives (IAM), or write to the IAM administrator.

Birth/Midwifery

• www.stroeckenverdult.be—babytherapie and perinatal psychology
• VBBB—Baby Friendly Hospital Initiative
• VLOV—Vlaamse Organisatie Van Vroedvrouwen
• Geboorte-Informatiecentrum
• Geboortehuizen in België
• Association des Sages-Femmes Belge
• http://doulasite.be/—Doula training

Parenting/Breastfeeding

• La Leche League—Belgium Chapter