Hi Susan,

I know that it is very possible for miscommunication (on both sides) to
result in misunderstanding however, I tend to believe it when mothers say
that they encountered a lukewarm or discouraging reception to the idea of
breastfeeding an older adopted child. I've read too many discouraging things
in both lay and professional publications about adoptive breastfeeding
general and heard it direct from breastfeeding supporters myself. I think
that these attitudes are mostly based in ignorance and when I speak on the
subject at conferences workshops etc it is really common for people to make
comments afterwards along the line of "I didn't understand before why anyone
would bother with trying to breastfeed an adopted child but now I do" often
followed by "Where can I get more information? my neighbour/friend/sister in
law is adopting" Actually, even ordinary relactation for a biological child
can get a similar response.

> I've never heard of an age limit for adoptive nursing, and certainly as a
> LLLL, our mission is to support all mothers for whatever breastfeeding
they
> are able to do.

I'm not a LC but I will do as you suggest. I guess it would be nice if LLL
would consider providing some education on this for leaders. I'm a little
far away unfortunately. I know that people think that adoptive
breastfeeding/relactation is a really specialised area and therefore not
worth expending much effort on learning about however, I personally think
that a lot of information can be very useful in a wider context. I recently,
gave a talk to some health care professionals (mainly early childhood nurses
and midwives) and one of them commented "so fascinating and useful in my
everyday work" That was really nice for me to hear. Not everyone is going to
need to help a mother with adoptive breastfeeding but I think everyone
should know about it because it will assist them in helping the average
mother...there is a lot that can be learnt from extreme situations, they can
make the more subtle, glaringly obvious.

Karleen Gribble
Australia

> I would encourage you as the LC to contact the League Leader(s) whose
> meetings your adoptive mother went to, and discuss the issue with them.
As
> we all have encountered, sometimes mothers have a different perception of
> information encountered in any situation, flavored by fears and hopes,
than
> was intended.

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