Do you go to Le Leche League (LLL)

I'm just wondering if the breastfeeding mamas among us attend LLL meetings.

I just recently started to attend. It took me over 3 1/2 years to get there but I finally did and I LOVE IT!! I'm getting so much out of the meetings, so much more the breasfeeding advice.... I'm learning more about parenting and I'm making new, likeminded friends. And my girls love it too! There's always kids there.

The meetings are free to attend. You can become a paid member, but it's definately NOT required. They just have some much to offer.

Anyway, does anybody else go to LLL? They've been around since 1956 (although small in the first years), so even to the moms with older kids, did you attend when you were breastfeeding?

 

i'm sure it's a good thing, but i've never had the time. most of my friends have bf, so i kinda already have a good support group.

 

i've been to one meeting (about two months ago), and it was awesome! i'd like to go to more, but the group meets over an hour away, my husband works weird hours, we have one car at the moment, etc. We stay in touch online though, so i definately still feel like part of the "club." Awesome ladies, though i have to admit, i'm the most conservative one there (for the first time in my life!) so i often feel like the odd one out, but thry're still very nice. i wish i had met them 4 years ago!

 

I went when my second and third kiddos were babes. They're both in their 30's now. It was a great help back then. I didn't know anyone who BF. My mother hadn't so I had no support system. Babe number 3 BF until the day after his first birthday. He woke up that morning, took a couple of sucks, and looked at me like "I'm done, Mom." I should have went with babe number 4. My milk dried up overnight when she was 3 months old due to a major trauma. Took months to find formula that she could hold down. With babe number 5, there was no trauma but my milk dried up at exactly the same age. Doctor said it was "Cellular Memory" of the previous trauma. I think LLL could have helped with both situations. But at the time I didn't know anyone nearby to go to.

Idefinitely recommend it, even if just for the socialization.

Kathi

 

yeah, i agree with ya Kathi - being able to talk it out with somebody who's been there is so helpful. guess i just lucked out that my group of friends are mostly all experienced with bf. my first two kids i didn't have any problems with, but i had some problems with my latest creation when i first started back to work. now if i can just wean him gently... 16 months is about enough for this mama.

 

Yeah, that's pretty much how I use it. I've just been so lucky so far with brestfeeding. #1 nursed untill 24 mo and #2 just wean a few weeks ago at 21 months. All without a hitch.

I'm finding that after 3 1/2 eyars of being a SAHM that I'm getting kinda lonely and I just love that I can go there and talk and laugh and listen and.....cry

The day my yougest weaned for good we just happened to have a meeting. I'd been nursing over 41 months (I tandumed the girls for a good three months) so I was glad to be in the company of women who would cry with me ya know.

So ANYway, I've been using the bi-monthly LLL and monthly API (attachment parents international) meetings as social events

Oh and at LLL the other day, a new mom was there with her 3 week old who was having problems latching on and after a leader worked with her for just a few minutes, the babe just popped on and went nuts. It was so touching

 

Breastfeeding is triple plus good.

La Leche are known as "boob Nazis" for a reason.

They are to breastfeeding what ELF is to environmentalism - they use the stick rather than the carrot and are quick to condemn.

 

Hmm, I've never heard of them being called "boob nazis" before.

And I just don;t get what you're saying I guess. Are you saying they are bad because the push breastfeeding??

 

RE: And I just don;t get what you're saying I guess. Are you saying they are bad because the push breastfeeding??

Not what they do, how they do it.

 

How they do it?

How do they do it?

It's not like they go tracking down monthers shoving nipples in their babes mouths.

Mothers come to LLL, LLL doesn't go to mothers.

 

boob nazis!!! lol!!! i can just see them all goosestepping past, whipping them out in unison... sorry, i'm very visual and little flashes pop into my mind unbidden... hahahaaaa!!!

 

From my own personal experience, and by what i've observed, the only people who feel threatened by "boob nazis" (LLL or otherwise) are the ones who never attempted to nurse their own children, or are bitter because they had problems that went unsolved. In either case, it usually adds up to the mothers' own guilt, and has little or nothing to do with what a nursing mom has actually done or said to them.

As was already said, mothers go to LLL, LLL does not go door-to-door like the gustapo, dragging women with babies out of their homes. Women go for support or help, so don't be offended if a leader or member gives out unwanted advice--they simply know the breast is best (sorry, that's not an opinion, it's backed up by science and nature) and know that ever mom wants the best for her child--so sometimes it's assumed that advice is not unwelcome.

 

I was always calling LLL when me and Leane were trying to BF. The leader who I was talking to was great, and would talk with more for hours at a time. I would call her up just bawling some days, and it helped to talk to her. I really wanted to go to the meetings, but I wasn't able to make it into the city cuz my hubby needs the car for work.
I felt really ashamed, though, when we weren't able to do it. I constantly had really bad infections (mastisis (sp)), adn Leane was just always crying and mad and hungry and couldn't sleep. When we gave her formula, she was just a different baby all together, a happy one at that. But dispite that, I still felt like I had let the lady I was talking to down. I can understand the "boob nazis" thing just because even with everything that was happening, she still kept saying that it was better for the baby. I was so torn and stressed out about what I should do and hearing that just made me feel worse, even though I already knew that.
A LC at the edmonton BF clinic finally told me to give it up....I felt awful that day, but I guess it was for the best. Leane's a happy, healthy plump little girl now.

 

don't feel bad teeny - whatever works!!! feeding the baby is the goal, however you have to accomplish it. you gave it more than a chance, you worked at a difficult situation instead of just runnin for the formula. yeah, boob's are better for the baby but formula is better than starvin her!! if she's happy & healthy, you are doing your job mama.

 

omg - i watched a law-n-order show last night, the chick starved her baby to death and tried to blame it on the lactation consultant for telling her 'breast is best', and the lc had her sign a contract at the hospital to promise not to give the baby formula!! the lc in the show was pretty forceful, but in the end the mom was found guilty because by the end of the baby's life it was visibly obvious there was something wrong with the him. how could you possibly think you're baby was ok if it is starving? wouldn't a person notice? like everybody hasn't seen what starvation looks like, on tv at least... what a horrible show.

 

that's sick!

in regards to your other reply, thanx.
It killed me to not be able to BF her, but in the end, I knew that all that mattered was that she was healthy.