La Leche Madness

This morning, I took an hour or so off of work and wandered over to the AM La Leche League meeting at nearby church hall. I had absolutely no idea of what to expect. That was probably a good thing. I was about the 4th person to get there. As I found out, the more kids you have, the less likely you are to be on-time for anything. So, the people with no children or 1 were there on time. Then, waves of mothers kept coming in, until at least halfway through the hour with 2 or 3 children in tow. By the end, there had to have been at least 20 kids ranging in age from 8 months to 7 years.

When I got there, I thought it was strange to have just a circle of a dozen chairs or so in such a big room. The rest of the room was for the kids. As for the meeting itself, I was a little uncomfortable with all the moms periodically breastfeeding their kids even while they had the floor. They were all very discreet and matter of fact, but it was a little surreal. The topic was "Bringing Baby Home." And, since only 3 of us were expecting (the leader with her 4th), I spent a lot of the meeting with everyone staring in my general direction. The other newbie is due Sunday, so she had specific questions. I paid attention, but didn't speak up since that's a scenario I'm not really comfortable in. The conversation was all over the place, but it became clear that there are some very extreme beliefs in that group. I got the impression some of the mothers were a bit more moderate, but also quiet. I came away with some tips for getting off to a good start with breastfeeding as well as a couple suggestions for BF friendly pediatricians. The doctor we interviewed wasn't one of them, but then I wasn't thinking that far ahead when we met him. He may still be okay though. I asked a friend about her experience when I got back to the office. He seemed to support BF and wasn't quick to prescribe supplementation. I was also curious about cloth diapering experiences since some of the babies there were sporting them, but I needed to get back to work.

Unfortunately, the Breastfeeding "Tea" put on by the doctor's office coincides with the next evening meeting, because I'd like to see how different the dynamics are in a public coffee shop. I'll get a chance later though.