There is great excitement among the staff at the Breastfeeding Centre right now (that is me and my Wednesday partner-in-crime Kintara!) as our plans and dreams for a refit of our office are final coming into place. We are about to do a big shopping trip to Ikea to update some very old and inadequate storage units and desks, with wonderful Expedit units!!!!!

We are also hopeful that we will be able to action the building plans to modify the current partitioning to create two closed office spaces where there is now one. Using wonderful software I found online, I was able to draft the new plan a few months ago, so this gives you an idea of what it will look like:

In the family room, we will have one of these to hold the TV,toys and our teaching aids like baby dolls and knitted breasts:

We will also have one of these to hold more toys:

Replacing the two current bookcases will be two of these. They will hold the library, handout materials, breast pumps and lactation aids for sale and display items:

In our offices, we will each have one of these, with the additional desk option, to house all of our admin supplies etc - these will be our new work stations:

And, finally, each office space will have one of these, giving us individual meeting/breastfeeding support space for our visitors and can also be screened for mums needing extra privacy. Volunteers coming in to do shifts on our Breastfeeding Helpline (normally done at home) will also be comfortable on these with a cordless phone and headset:

Best of all - we don't need to assemble any of it: we are getting the professionals in ;)

Hopefully, all will be in place before I take two weeks leave in three weeks ... so you can expect just a little stress-release here and controlled chaos at the Centre!!!!

It will all be worth it, though!

What a difference a year makes!

Here we are, the end of September and I feel like all my ducks are in a row. At home and at work there is peace and order.

Flashback to this week 2008 - not so much!

Hard as it is to believe, it is a year since we opened our ABA Victorian Branch Office in Dandenong - to be known as The Breastfeeding Centre. This time last year, I was in the midst of packing the office from its temporary location in my lounge room, whilst coordinating removalists, utitilies, connections etc and wondering if our grand plan would actually work.

So far, so good!

The empty space I received the keys for last year is now a cosy community space and also an efficient administrative base. Throught the wonder of www.freecycle.org, generous donations and karma, my wish list is pretty well ticked off and the BF Centre is the hub for breastfeeding

that we envisaged.

Mothers Meeting

Last Thursday, a group of mums and their babies met at our centre. They chatted, drank tea and coffee, played, breastfed and generally had a good time all round.

This is not terribly remarkable in the day to day experience of life in the Australian Breastfeeding Association and is generally the norm most days here at the Breastfeeding Centre in Dandenong.

So why was this gathering notable? 

These mothers were all Afghani migrants, with little English and no previous experience of the culture taken for granted by most Australian-born mums. As Muslims, their head scarves single them out in the community as *different* and cultural traditions tend to limit integration into our western society.

Now, I have heard for years, from various doom-sayers, that "these women" are not interested in groups like ABA, that they "won't go" to our coffee mornings and discussion meetings and anyway, they "don't have trouble breastfeeding". All possibly true, but not spouted by those who had tried and failed, but by those never brave enough to try and possibly fail.

My experience was, apart from my complete inability to speak any of their language and their limited abilities to speak some of mine, that this meeting was just the same as those I have attended during the past 25 years in ABA. There were a couple of mums worried about breastfeeding - one low supply that wasn't and one sore nipples that were! - and the others were just taking it in their stride. All were keen to participate in our limited discussion and indicated they would like to return another day.

It is time everyone threw out preconcieved notions of what migrant - and other - groups of mothers will or will not do. My theroy is, invite them and see what happens!

About the Breastfeeding Centre

Wow, did you hear that - Jane asked about the Breastfeeding Centre on my Facebook wall: someone fresh to rave about our centre to! The Breastfeeding Centre is at 3/71 Robinson St Dandenong and is the ABA Victorian Branch office and also a public facility for the mothers of Victoria. We are open three days per week and I am privledged to be the entire staff! While I work away in the background doing the admin work required to keep 420+ volunteers functioning and happy (!) I also facilitate the use of the Centre by the community and ABA. On Tuesdays, between 11.30 and 1pm, pregnant women can drop in for some information and resources over lunch. On Wednesday, it is Drop-in Day between 10.30 and 3.30 and everyone is welcome - pregnant women, new mums, women with toddlers and older children, health professionals and anyone interested in learning more about breastfeeding and ABA. We provide electric breast pump hire, a small range of breast pumps and other lactation aids and ABA booklets for sale, handout materials (both English and in other languages), a library of books, videos and DVDs related to breastfeeding and parenting and plenty of toys for the babies and small children we welcome. While the phone rings constantly with bookings for the Breastfeeding Education Classes held across the State, enquiries for breast pump hire and volunteers and the wider public seeking information and resources, the front door opens frequently as mothers, volunteers and health professionals pop in for a cuppa or three, a chat on the comfy couches or a browse of the artworks, posters and photos of volunteers. Some days you might find us in the midst of training peer support volunteers from the widely diverse communities that make up the Dandenong population or you might find a group of trainees practicing role plays of counselling scenarios. On a Saturday there might be a breastfeeding class, during the week it could be an ABA group meeting. Some volunteers are borrowing banners or other resources, while others are returning a DVD they showed at their group meeting. The photos in my Facebook album include the signs that went up today and some photos taken several months ago of the centre in action. Since then, we have made improvements of furniture and decor, but the same atmosphere is there and commented on by every visitor, as they linger wondering if they really need to go or is there time for another cuppa. Come and see us soon!

Our new office

Our New Office!

Our New Office!

Office news!

Great excitement amongst the staff here at the Vic Branch Office (yes, that means I am talking to myself again!) as plans fall into place for our imminent relocation to what we hope is our new, long term office premises!

For those new to the scene, the story so far: At Easter this year, the Victorian Branch Office Staff (me) vacated our office space within Head Office in East Malvern. This was due to expansion of Mother’s Direct into the space we rented at the rear of the warehouse. Because we were in State Government funding limbo at that time, we had no means to lease a new property, so “temporarily” set up business in my lounge room … from where the office has functioned for the past six months!

In July, we were finally advised of ongoing government funding and could begin the quest for a new premises. It had been recognised late last year that the ideal geographic location for our office would be in the Dandenong area, where ABA subscriber and volunteer numbers are low, while the need for breastfeeding support is high. Our vision became more than just an administrative office base – we planned to set up a community breastfeeding centre as a hub for not only our volunteers, but mothers and health professionals.

After a lot of red tape, we finally settled on our new address and – all being well – plan to relocate ON SATURDAY OCTOBER 4th!!!!!! Hopefully disruption to our services will be minimal, however there will be a period of a few days when Yvette will be in transit.

Phone, mail and email diversions will continue for some time, however our new street address is Suite 3/71 Robinson Street Dandenong 3175 and this will also be our new postal address. You can Google the address to see the location and if you choose street view, you can even see what it looks like!

The Office comprises a public space where we will hold meetings, classes and informal gatherings; a large office for admin activity and a smaller office which will provide storage and private breastfeeding space. Both male and female toilets are located within the suite and there is a small tea making area right in the public room. The office comes with two reserved parking spaces at the rear and access to our suite at the front is via an enclosed atrium walkway. There is no step to come from the car park to our office, apart from a small rise in the doorway. Two hour on street parking (free) is available in front of the building, while there is a paid all day cark park behind our building. This is $4 for the full day or 80c per hour between 8am and 6pm Monday to Saturday.

To enter the public car park or reserved parking area at the rear, enter Hemmings St from Robinson Street and enter Newton Lane or the car park beside it. Those travelling by foot can enter the office directly from Robinson St and there is a ramp for pram access to our door. Office hours will continue as 10am – 4pm Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday and visitors are very welcome! The kids will love our more spacious facilities and the ever-popular toy collection! We hope to establish regular drop in days where volunteers from across the branch can visit to chat with local mums, as well as BECs, peer support training and more. Local group meetings, training sessions, breast pump hire and more will also be run from the office.

This is such an exciting time for our branch and we all look forward to showing off our new home! As always, it is an entirely separate entity from the Association’s national head office in East Malvern and we hope you will all visit. We are three minutes from the Dandenong exit on East Link and directly off Princes Highway, so nice and handy. It is walking distance to the Dandenong Market (Tues, Fri and Sat!) and we are already checking out the abundance of local cafes!

We need some extra furniture for this new venture, so if you know of a sofa, armchairs, shelving or cupboards that need a new home, give me a call! Oh, and I also need a vacuum cleaner and a kettleJ

My faith is restored!!!!

It is with great relief that I can tell you that the past 24 hours has seen the Minister's office under a DELUGE of emails asking for ABA Vic Branch to be funded and - restoring my faith - we have been advised late this afternoon, that we will get our funding!!!!

Thank you to everyone who supported our call for support!

Now - we need a new office, have to relocate all our stuff back out of storage, tell everyone we are there ...

... I think I am in for a busy couple of months!