I've been thinking about Kate's question about how LLL Leaders reconcile the
advantages of breastfeeding and the wisdom of, say, Diane Weissinger.

I wonder if Kate is talking about the language thing?

Many LLL Leaders (me among them) talk--all the time--about breastfeeding as
"optimal" and "protective" so on and so forth.  Well, it is.  But I believe
that Diane W. is right--this language tends to be didactic, and most moms
eyes (and mine eyes among them) begin to glaze over when this sort of
language is used a lot.  Not that it doesn't enlighten us to know it.
Talking to regular mothers is usually different from talking with people in
the breastfeeding field.

However, I also look at that information as "wonderment" as in "Omigod,
breastfeeding and breast milk is such a miracle."  LLL Leaders, before all
else, are moms who were hugely glad we breastfed--often against big
odds--and are happy to say so.  Aren't we all?  And hooray for evidence we
can now base our practice on!  It is not a one way or the other thing for us
LLL Leaders.  Don't we say "we wrote the book on breastfeeding?"   ;  )

So, what I am saying is while I frequently talk about the advantages of
breastfeeding using all the evidence, facts, research, and numbers I can
manage, my favorite  "discussion"  of the advantages of breastfeeding occurs
mother to mother, smiling over her healthy happy breastfed baby, wordlessly
sharing that wave length where it happens to be just plain normal.

Diane, LLL
Florence, VT

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