Petra de Ruiter is from Holland. She has BS degree in nursing and also graduated from the School of Midwifery in Bedford, UK. As a staff midwife she worked in the hospital, coaching women through labor and conducting deliveries, providing both antenatal and postnatal care, looking after high-risk pregnant women and babies. She subsequently obtained registration as a midwife in The Netherlands. She is also an International Board-certified Lactation Consultant (IBCLC).

In 1997 Petra, her husband, and their two daughters moved to Tianjin, China, for language study.  From 2000 till 2019 they lived and worked in Shanxi province, Yangqu county. During those twenty years she conducted trainings for township and village doctors, was involved in health education, provided teacher training sessions, taught antenatal classes both in small groups as well as in larger settings in hospitals in Tianjin, Yuci, Taiyuan, and Yangqu. She provided lactation training for maternity staff in the hospital and lactation consultation for newly delivered mothers both in the hospital and in homes. She was invited to Zhuhai, Nanning, and Guiyang to teach breastfeeding courses for nurses, midwives, doctors, and others who support breastfeeding women.

To reach more women, she developed a website (www.yunfuxuexiao.net). The goal of the website is to provide expecting and new parents with easy to read, scientific information. She also recorded two video courses for parents, one about “Pregnancy” and one about “Labor & Delivery”.

Even though Petra now lives in The Netherlands, she and her husband still travel to China several times a year where she continues to conduct lactation training in different cities in China.

Her primary interest and skills are to train others in antenatal and postnatal care, and breastfeeding management and support. Teaching and supporting medical personnel, pregnant and newly delivered women is a central goal in all she does.