Assen

Netherlands

9401LT

Lactation Consultant IBCLC in private practice, translator for parenting resources, founder (together with colleague Victor Bodiut) and project leader of the Dutch ACE-awareness initiative that is on the verge of being launched (we are both medical anthropologists)

I do work for: - my own private practice as an IBCLC; - my own private practice as a translator/editor; - the Dutch ACE-awareness initiative (with Victor Bodiut); - the Dutch professional IBCLC organisation NVL; - a local/hometown alliance of organisations stimulating discussion and debate around societally/spiritually/philosophically important topics. I have applied for a board position in the European IBCLC alliance; elections at the two-yearly conference in Milan, May 2020.

My parents were divorced when I was 18yo, after years and years of issues and I lost my sister in 1999, when she was 32 yo. After many years of inquiry into my background, I have come to the conclusion that she died from ACEs and that my parents were divorced as a result of their own ACEs. After the birth of our third daughter (third of four total), I became a very active breastfeeding volunteer and then a Lacation Consultant IBCLC later on. Over the years, I moved from considering breastfeeding a means to seeing breastfeeding as a tool for a solid, secure, healthy start in life. My lactation work and (medical) anthropology studies have shifted my attention to the importance of socially constructed health issues where toxic stress and lack of stable and secure relationships have a huge influence on human health and wellbeing. The foundations are laid in childhood ('first 1000 days') and Gabor Maté has really captivated me with his work (addiction as a consequence of broken connection early on), as well as Jack Shonkoff (toxic stress), Nils Bergman (buffering protection, skin-to-skin contact; translated book into Dutch), James McKenna (importance of close attunement and proximity 24/7, mother as secure base; translated book into Dutch), John Bowlby (all his attachment work), Nick Conneman (NIDCAPper, importance of skin-to-skin for prematurely born babies, importance of proximity) and many more. My bachelor and master end works deal with the importance of secure childhood for adult health and wellbeing. I am working on my own concept related to all this, which I have termed 'Adult Supremacy', a power position in which adults consciously or unconsciously cause their privileges, ambitions and (unrecognised) biosocial needs to trump child wellbeing, rendering the minor minor. I would love to blog about this on your website to gain traction for this approach, in line with white and male supremacy!

Our ACEs initiative is on the verge of being launched: SoMe are ready, but we're waiting for the logo. Then we will start the conversation on a national scale. We are working on our ally-network right now, and are in close touch with Scotland (where such amazing work has been done!).