The Peer Counsellor Programme in South Africa, part 2
Loraine Hamm
Gauteng, South Africa
From: LEAVEN, Vol. 37 No. 4, August-September 2001, pp. 92-93
Sophia Blows was recruited
from a community support group and after completion of the Peer Counsellor
training course, she became interested and involved in other LLL activities.
Sophia signed her Statement of Commitment at the 1998 LLL Area Conference
social supper. Sophia is very involved in PC training and is also involved
in the Breastfeeding Liaison Group and BFHI in her area. Sophia gave
the following contribution to a panel discussion at the LLL Area Conference,
Kempton Park, 1-5 July 1998. Thanks to Loraine Hamm of Gauteng, South
Africa, and Rachel O'Leary of Great Britain, the retiring Division Publications
Administrator for the International Division, who compiled and edited
the original article. For more information on the Peer Counsellor Programme
in South Africa, see the June- July issue of LEAVEN.
I would like to begin by saying what voluntary work means to me as a
person, apart from the fact that it is very fulfilling. Fulfilling in the sense that I
am now experiencing things that I have never thought about. I am going out in
the community and being of some assistance to people that I do not know at
all. The greatest pleasure for me is when I help a mother who has a problem.
Baby is crying, the mother is stressed, and nothing seems to be going right.
I would let her sit down and very carefully, I would go about finding out what
the problem is. This is one such story.
One Sunday my phone rang.
There was a woman crying, asking me to come and help her because she
felt her baby was not getting enough milk from her. I went to see her
after trying to calm her on the phone because I realized that the phone
was not a good medium at this stage. When I got to her house she opened
the door and started to cry again. She said that she expected that I
would not come until the next day. We went inside and she invited me
to sit down and we started to talk. Then the baby woke up and I asked
her to put the baby to the breast because I wanted to see how they were
feeding. There was no problem with her positioning the baby at the breast.
I started to compliment her on that and she started to cry again. Then
I realized this was a problem of a different kind. I looked around the
room, a lounge cum bedroom, then said to her you have a very nice place,
because at this stage, I did not know how to handle the situation.
Then she started to tell
me about herself and her family. She was abused by her father as a very
young child and her mother blamed her. She said it was the girl's fault
that her father messed with her. As time progressed she ran away from
home. The father found her and took her back and things continued as
before. At the age of fifteen she ran away again, this time to family.
Time went on until she met a man, married him, and became pregnant.
Her mother said to her that she would never make a good mother. All
the while I just nodded and let her do all the talking. At the end of
all the talking and crying, all I could do for the mother was put my
arms around her, hug her, and try to give her some self-confidence and
self-worth because she had gone through so much. All she needed was
someone to whom she could talk and who would not condemn her. By the
time I was ready to leave, I can assure you she was a very different
person from the one who had opened the door to me earlier.
This was really not a breastfeeding
problem, this mother needed somebody to listen to her. It was an inner
cry for help and understanding. We still phone each other from time
to time. The feeling that I get from the community at large is they
are very grateful to the Peer Counsellors for the assistance they receive
from us. It always feels very good when you have been able to help a
mother in a positive way. The smile of relief on a face when the mother's
nipples are no longer sore because she has learned to latch on properly
is reward enough for me, or when I have helped show a mother how to
express her milk and the breast doesn't hurt anymore.
Peer Counselor Program Purpose
To develop support systems
within targeted communities that will provide ongoing access to breastfeeding
information and support by training those interested in helping mothers
to breastfeed through learning more about breastfeeding promotion, management,
support, and techniques. These courses are ideal for those who wish
to support, protect, and promote breastfeeding such as nurses, midwives,
dieticians, childbirth educators, doulas, social workers, teachers,
corporate human services personnel, health-care service office personnel,
mothers, grandparents, and breastfeeding peer counselors.
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Commitment
Trainees have to attend courses
satisfactorily. In one group of PCs, three of the twenty-one did not
attend satisfactorily, and by mutual agreement with the whole group,
they did not receive certificates. Completion of the course does require
real commitment on the part of the trainee. The mother may have a small
baby and as with LLL Leaders, it takes some time to adjust to the idea
of following a course with little babies and toddlers around.
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Page last edited Sun Oct 14 09:31:19 UTC 2007.
