Hi All,
    I have to admit that I have not been reading my LactNet's lately -
way too busy. I did get to them this morning though and of course I have
a few comments. First Ann, I agree, in the past few weeks I have
resorted to e-mails cards to send baby congratulations and travel plans
- something even a few months ago I would have never considered.
    On the posts on military hospitals, I am also struggling in that
situation (small community with this hospital - captive audience). As I
have been here since 1990, I have had a long time to work with the
people. I have some very positive, encouraging people, unfortunately
almost none of them are in the LDR suite. My biggest support now is
coming from the Women's Health Clinic (which oversees treatment of
breast cancer).
    In the same vein, that 6 hour figure just gets to me, I know that
the mention that each feeding will take 30 to 40 minutes turns moms off
- it would turn me off. In the classroom that I use at the local
military hospital, on the biggest chart in the room are blocks of
'cutesy' cartoons about new motherhood and the first one is mom sitting
in a rocking chair, baby at breast with the thought 'let's see 30 to 40
minutes, 8 to 10 times a day for 365 days' and most of the time I walk
into the room I want to pull out a big black marker and X it out. Yes
the first few weeks can be intensive, but I found that by not looking at
the clock both in how long baby was nursing and how long it had been
from the last nursing, it didn't worry or bother me. And it didn't seem
to last that long, before baby settled into a really manageable nursing
pattern (certainly not 6 hours per day for a year).
    Finally on LLL meetings, I see our Group as a neighborhood. Our
society has come to the point where our neighborhoods are very 'similar'
of nature, beliefs and values, so even if you do get to know your
neighbors, they probably hold the same ideas that you do. By holding a
League meeting, a mom's sense of community and exposure to so many
different ideas and working of breastfeeding into many different
situations is expanded. I see us as more of a way to expose moms to moms
of like thinking, and this is the reason that 20 years later, I am still
with League.

Leslie Ward
Vine Grove, KY
Happy Holidays to All