It started with The Village
‘it takes a village to raise a family’
2013 - 2024
As an expat in a country that is not your own going through pregnancy and into parenthood brings its own unique set of challenges, dilemmas and questions. Language barriers, limited understanding of the system, not knowing where to access the information and appropriate support to meet your needs, isolation and loneliness to name just a few.
11 years ago Siobhan McGonigle lived that experience as an expat living in Brussels. Amazingly she was able to look out from her own busy life as a working mum and raising her 3 boys to acknowledge that if she was grappling with those challenges then others were too. And so her passion project was born: building “The Village”. The Village became a ‘one stop shop’ for new and expectant parents that provided the information they need to navigate the system and all its complexities but more importantly a village that supported and nurtured new parents. Siobhan has been passionate in telling the stories of expat parents in Brussels and showcased their experiences with compassion and kindness. She has actively sort out care givers and birth workers who support the expat community and in doing so given the expat community a wider understanding of the options available and shown them they have choices. Siobhan reached out to organisations such as the Brussels Childbirth Trust that provide the chance for new parents to meet, build friendships and lessen their isolation and in doing so she created a village!
Life moves on and our focus changes has it has for Siobhan and she has made the difficult decision to close ‘The Village’ - a huge loss for the Brussels expat community. But, off the back of ‘The Village’ this website ‘Pregnant In Belgium’ has come into being. Thank you Siobhan for your generosity in letting ‘Pregnant In Belgium’ use the static content from ‘The Village’ as its foundation. It is the start of a new chapter in supporting expectant and new expat parents in Belgium and we will be true to the your ethos and to the saying ‘it takes a village to raise a family’.
Thank you Siobhan on behalf of everyone who has used ‘The Village’ over the last 11 years and found the support and care they needed! Your legacy lives on.
