[Hope]

Has anyone attended the La Leche League breastfeeding seminar. I am not talking about the monthly meetings which is organised for free. I mean the seminar where you go to a LLL leader's home and pay $500 to have her speak to you about breastfeeding your baby. I would like to know whether its worth the amount of money to attend this 2 hour seminar or would I be better off just speaking to friends who breastfeed their babies. What is offered in the seminar and is the information useful and different from what I can pick-up from friends? Any feedback is much appreciated.
Hope

[jools]

Hi Hope,
I've never been to one of the seminars but do attend the meetings regularly. I am currently breast feeding my second child and have learnt things at the meetings that I didn't know from the first time around. The LLL leaders are truly experts and really know what they're talking about. You can talk to your friends, obviously, though I found talking to mine that they were also in the dark about the same things I was. There is also alot of folk lore out there about breast feeding which is handed down through the generations, which in some cases can be downright unhelpful. If this is your first child I would certainly recommend getting in contact with LLL. I think the seminar is a good idea as you get everything up front, with the meetings (which are also excellent) you may have to attend two or three (which is also a good idea for meeting other mums in the same position) to get the same amount of information. I guess what I'm trying to say is if I were in your shoes I would go to the seminar and the meetings, especially if this is your first, as in my experience the more you know the less difficulties you will have. Hope that helps.

Jools

[barbwong_130]

Dear Hope,

I also haven’t been to the breastfeeding seminar but I found the LLL leader to be very helpful when I had my first child and knew nothing. I had a thousand and one questions and she helped me with all of them.

When looking for breastfeeding advice I think it is important to get it from people who are going to give you accurate information. For me it was important to get help from someone who had been successful at breastfeeding. And by successful I mean long-term successful, not just a couple of weeks. This didn’t mean I necessarily wanted to breastfeed long-term just that if the person I took advice from had, say breastfed for two years, I knew that they’d managed what I wanted to do – i.e. the first few months. All La Leche League leaders have breastfed their babies for at least one year and usually for longer.

One of my friends told me that it was no problem to introduce a bottle to a breastfed baby because her baby, who was 5 weeks premature, had no problems but I later leant from a LLL leader that actually over 90% of newborn babies get nipple confusion if given a bottle in the first three weeks of life. In other words my friend was just lucky. I think this is the real strength of turning to LLL leaders they don’t just know about their own babies but about lots of babies. So they know what the problems are and how to solve them and it isn’t a matter of luck.

Best wishes,
Barb

[LLL_Sarah]

I realize that as a LLL Leader you probably didn’t want an answer from me but …

The reason that we started to offer the seminar was because a co-Leader and I attended the Pan-Asian Lactation Consultant conference in November 2002. At the conference we learnt two things that affect a mother’s ability to get breastfeed off to a good start are:

• Accurate information while pregnant and
• Support during the early days.

Often mothers don’t attend our meetings until after their baby is born, although we do encourage everyone to come as soon as they can, thus missing out on both these points.

The seminar is basically a joint effort from all of the LLL Leaders in Hong Kong and gives what we think are the important points to get breastfeeding off to a good start. The contents include:

• Breastfeeding advantages
• What to do and why in the first few days
• Good positioning
• Good latching
• Hunger Cues
• When the milk supply increases
• How to know if baby is getting enough
• False alarms
• Potential problems
• Out and about with baby
• Expressing
• Where to get support

The cost of the seminar is $500, this is for two – the mother and a supporter. We feel that it is very important that a breastfeeding mother has support from an informed family member. We encourage fathers to attend - but if the father is not around, perhaps another family member, for example the mother or mother-in-law could attend. Or even a sister... even the domestic helper. The more people who understand the basic principles of breastfeeding - the better.

The cost of the seminar also includes a copy of LLI’s book The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding. The book covers all normal situations that a new breastfeeding mother is likely to encounter and some special situations too.

Even if you don’t attend a seminar but have a worry or concern please feel free to contact one of us.

SARAH – 2548-7636
MAGGIE – 2817-7475
SACHA – 2914 -2272
MAGGIE – 9048-1701 – (Chinese)
LLLHK@hotmail.com

I’ve noticed that mothers who attend the meetings or a seminar while pregnant are much more likely to contact us early when they have a problem. So I think it is a good idea to actually meet, or at least speak on the phone, with a Leader while pregnant. Then you actually know the person you are asking for help in the early venerable days straight after birth.

Good luck,
SARAH