Married at 22 in 1968 and living in NYC pregnant in 1972. No friend nor college roommate had had a baby yet. Somehow read the original blue LLL manual and Karen Pryor’s
Nursing Your Baby and decided “I can do that”. My mom had nursed me for 6 weeks in 1945, my brother for 2 weeks 2 years later, and my youngest brother for 6 months when I was 8yo. Despite my Italian immigrant grandmother having nursed her 4 children for long stretches, my mom could not buck the anti-BF of the times. My brother and I were fed a PET evaporated milk and KARO syrup concoction.

I nursed (the preferred terminology in those days) my first baby for 15 months and weaned when my Pedi told me to wean before I returned for her 15 month checkup.
Found LLL for my 2nd child, nursed for 26 months and became a Leader applicant in Connecticut. Became a Leader in 1979 in LA when my third child was about to be born.
BF her for almost 4 years. I too flew to Georgetown to take the first IBCLC exam. Lead meetings in LA, then New Jersey and continued in SF Bay Area and ran the group’s pump rental station.
Gradually began doing private practice LC visits, teaching hospital BF classes, and renting my own pumps and learning “on the job”. In those days LLL Leaders made up the majority of LCs. By 1990 I got hired by 2 hospitals (part-time each). Set up the BF program for UC Berkeley (teaching BF and Return to work/school classes and helping to set up now 10 “pump rooms” spread around campus. Afterward I worked for WIC until 2015 doing my most challenging yet satisfying work.

I am retired both as an IBCLC and LLL Leader. I sometimes get asked a question or 2 from relatives or friends’ grandchildren. At 75 (will be in September) I enjoy viewing my 7th and last grandchild happily at the breast.

Best Wishes to all of you who are helping or have helped women and babies to thrive.

Laura Monin
Moraga,CA 



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