Christine Van Den Broecke-Schneider was born in Salzburg, Austria. She worked there mainly in the graphics and printing industry. During her first pregnancy she moved to Mechelen, Belgium where she still lives with her husband and her two children. Soon she came in contact with La Leche League in Brussels and in 1997 she became the first Dutch speaking La Leche League leader in Belgium-Flanders. Since 2001 she has been a member of the Belgium Federal Breastfeeding Committee. She is active in different national and local breastfeeding projects and the Baby Friendly Hospital Initiative. She frequently writes articles for La Leche League publications and other publications. She also gives presentations about breastfeeding through various organizations, for midwives and other maternity care workers, and she is still an active La Leche League leader.
Breastfeeding rates in Belgium are among the lowest in Europe. Mothers usually return to work fulltime when the baby is only 3 month old. Family, daycare and society very often are not supportive to breastfeeding mothers. Over the last decade things are changing for the better. The rate for initiation of breastfeeding does not increase, but mothers nurse their babies much longer than they used to do 10 or 15 years ago. Nevertheless, the complex and changing structure of the federal Belgium state and the three different official languages of the country (Dutch, French and German) create additional challenges. For example, it is impossible to get national breastfeeding rates. The efforts of the Federal Breastfeeding Committee are usually bogged down in the jungle of regulations and laws of this little but very complex country.
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