by Catherine Hine, CEO
BfN launched a service in Stoke five years ago, on the brink of a national lockdown. Yesterday I was privileged to mark Volunteers’ Week with volunteers from the original founding cohort as well as more recent trainees, representatives from Stoke Family Hubs programme, staff, women and parents, and children supported by BfN services.
Very excitingly, I visited Stoke on its centenary day! Stoke is a city that builds to last, even in the face of many challenges. Generations of skilled workers have made the world’s finest ceramics with patience, care, and precision. That same craftsmanship is evident in our volunteers: by moulding safe and welcoming spaces for women and families, they empower the confidence of women and families to make informed choices about infant feeding, and fire up community resilience, one conversation at a time.
Yesterday, some of that heritage adapted into child-friendly activities, local Oatcakes, and ducks were in evidence, alongside the purple t-shirts, perfect purple cake (thank you Gina!) and perhaps less obviously, a pink rocking horse!
Many of today’s volunteers began their journey with us in friendly and welcoming groups where they sought out help they could trust. Now wearing the purple t-shirts themselves, they offer the same vital support to others, week after week, with care, compassion and a commitment to continually improve and extend the service they offer.
In Stoke, like other areas where BfN works, volunteers tell me about balancing their own family lives, work, sometimes, studies, and yet they still reliably show up for parents in their communities. They know the difference they make to families, and I remain humbled by how they miraculously stretch time, despite the many other demands in their lives. Volunteer knowledge, lived experience, and their time commitment create a lifeline for parents at a point when it’s easy to feel overwhelmed or isolated.
Now, BfN trained volunteers are at the heart of delivering a responsive network of joined-up support to families in Stoke. And as the team shared, this is contributing to changes in initiation and breastfeeding continuation rates.
One volunteer told me, ‘It’s simply about being there for mums and families when they need us. It matters to parents to speak to someone who has been there, who is trained, is able to listen well and support them to develop the skills they want, but without baggage.’
Volunteers’ Week is a key moment in the year for us to thank and recognise the immense volunteer commitment that makes BfN’s work possible and that, whilst given without fanfare, achieves immense impact. We remember and are grateful for this contribution each day.
To every volunteer in Stoke – and to all the volunteers who donate their skills, their time and their unfailing support to families across the UK, whether in a peer support service in their community or one of our national services, the Drugs in Breastmilk Information Service, fundraising activities or on the National Breastfeeding Helpline. Your work changing lives, one conversation at a time, has never been more needed and I would like to take this opportunity to say, once again, thank you.