Another listmother chiming in!

I joined in June/July 0f 1995 after seeing an ad, I guess in JHL. Don't know where else I would have seen it. When I joined there were 200 members. Not sure when I became a listmother, maybe around early 1997, when Kathleen put out a request for some help in list management. Things were a lot less automatic back then and we spent a lot of time dealing with bouncing addresses.

I was an LLL Leader at the time, and later an IBCLC. I no longer wear either hat, having left active involvement in lactation issues when I went back to paid employment after earning my graduate degree in special education. I became a special education teacher after my son (now almost 25) was diagnosed with autism and was not getting the help he needed in school. I didn't homeschool him but used my new knowledge to help navigate the school bureaucracy. I called on the mother-to-mother support knowledge I gained as an LLL Leader when I used my experience as a parent of a child with a disability to support the parents of my students as they learned to navigate the world of special education. I later wrote my doctoral dissertation on the pedagogical implications of the dual role of parent of a child with a disability and special education teacher. I am now an assistant professor of education at a small, liberal arts college making very sure my students who will become teachers are exposed the concept of disability as a family construct, impacting all members of the family.

Lactnet helped keep up my interest and energy in lactation issues when I was parenting young children and feeling overwhelmed while living in areas that lacked breastfeeding resources and support. Because I stayed as an LLL Leader for 15 years, in part because of my Lactnet connections, I became a much better teacher than I would have otherwise, and now a better professor. I stay involved in Lactnet, albeit in the periphery, because I want it to be around when I help my daughters (20 and 23) with their future babies and that doesn't look like it will be any time soon!

Kathy, in Maryland

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