La Leche League Meetings: A Poll
August 15, 2008 by Angela White, J.D., breastfeeding counselor
Filed under breastfeeding, poll
La Leche League recently celebrated its 50th year of mother-to-mother breastfeeding support. I am curious — have you ever attended a meeting?
{democracy:46}
Leave a comment with your opinion as well! Has La Leche League been helpful to you? What would you like to see change in La Leche League? Are you a leader and if so, how long have you served?
I love going to the LLL meetings in my area. I went every month before I went back to work and for a few months, I took a day off of work to take my little one. It was great to be around other nursing mothers for the support!
I sometimes enjoy going, but find the format a bit boring (rotation through the same 4 topics). I prefer the “extra” meetings on special topics or the “little nursing persons” meetings.
I attend the toddler meeting regularly and have started going to a second meeting. When I finish my Masters next May, I want to apply for Leader. I really am passionate about the support that LLL provides.
I go to our local LLL meeting every month, they also have a monthly meeting in the hospital in the evening and this tends to attract more of the newborn mums so our meeting is often a bunch of toddlers running around and all us mums having tea, lovely!
I love meeting up with all the other “extended” breastfeeding mothers and comparing notes, and we also get a good few pregnant mums visiting, it’s amazing to see a bump one month and a tiny baby in arms the following! I have been approached about the leader training but I think it’s way too much commitment for me at the moment.
I attended every month until my little one was 10 months, then life got busy. We attend now as often as we can. I love meeting the moms with new babies – we had 4 new babies at last weeks’ meeting!
My local LLL leaders are so supportive! I am so thankful for the passion and knowledge that they share!
I have attended a few meetings – and I enjoyed them and learned a lot (more about things than just breastfeeding actually). But – the times just don’t work for me so I never go anymore. The group closest to my house meets at the same time as my weekly staff meeting and the evening one starts at 7pm – same time as bedtime for my little one, which includes nursing. Needless to say, it just doesn’t fit in with our life.
I went to one meeting when I went back to work (my son was 12 weeks old) and my milk supply went down. They were WONDERFUL about giving me encouragement and ideas to “up” my supply. Unfortunately I felt as though I was surrounded by people who were very different from me…about all we had in common was the fact that we were nursing our children. I am a huge advocate of nursing, but have stopped a year with both of my kids. There were 3 year olds nursing there and I was very uncomfortable with that. They were also very into all organic food, not shaving their legs, etc. I wish there was a nursing support group in my area for women who aren’t “natural” in every aspect of their lives!
I used to go regularly until we moved, and have only been a few times here. At this point, with one weaned and the other approaching that age (he’s 28 months), I don’t need the support so much.
I was actually approached about being a leader before we moved, but couldn’t follow through. I sometimes wish I had.
I am still a member and enjoy the magazines. I believe I will continue to support LLL financially after my sons are weaned.
I attended one meeting when my son was about 2 months old. I found it very odd that we were given note cards with a quote or statment on it that we were to read out loud. The information on the card was often not something I agreed with yet it was apparent that we were to keep our opinions to ourselves.
I commented that we were using a device that played a heartbeat sound to get my son to sleep and one of the statments on the note cards stated that this was wrong to do. The meeting as a whole had a feeling of “do it our way, it’s the only right way.”
I expected the members to be much more open minded and they were not. I never returned. However, I am still nursing my 27 month old and love meeting other moms who are extended nursers.
I know I said above that I attend two different meetings– toddler and “regular.” One thing I have found is that both meetings are completely different, but both are extremely supportive. Maybe some women who have had a hard time, but have more than one meeting to chose from, s/could try a different meeting? Or maybe the difference is regional? It’s be interesting to look at what makes up the differences, IMO.
I know this is an old post, but I have to put in my $0.02.
My sister was very active in LLL when her kids were small, and I was in my teens / early twenties, so it was only natural that I would join when I had my own baby.
When we were looking for a doula, one of the reasons we chose the one we did was because she was a local LLL leader.
My daughter was born a month early and we had a very rough with breastfeeding. I got MUCH more support from my doula / LLL leader than from the hospital LC.
Our group meetings are very small, but I attend every month, and I’m considering leader training once I have a little more experience under my belt. (In my bra?)