Dear Anne,

I have spoken to pregnant teenagers for about 3 years now.  They were also
captive audiences, one group through the local high school and one through
Catholic Charities.

After reading your note, I have a few suggestions:
1. Bring along a nursing baby, either yours or a LM or co-L.  This broke the
ice like nothing else.  Make sure it is a cheerful baby who is between 2
months and 24 months.  I was surprised by how accepting they were of the older
nurslings, though you will need to tailor this to the ethnic/socioeconomic
group you are going to deal with.   The live demo of seeing how easily the
babies were satisfied (they inevitably nursed during the session) made quite
an impression.  Many of them are used to formula babies and comment freely on
how much more fretful they are.
2. Sit in a circle.
3. Discuss that bfing is not all or nothing.  They can bfeed in conjunction
with work or school without pumping, they can choose to ffeed during the day
and bfeed at night, etc...  Most had never heard this.
4. The info about increasing intelligence seemed to make an impression.
5. One of my most successful sessions is about what it is really like to have
a new baby.  I then use common situation and tell them the difference to them
when they bfeed or ffeed.  ie. night feedings or teething or sick baby   It
works even better if you can get them to do it as an activity, hard to do
though.
6. Don't be put off if they won't make eye contact, that is normal for teens.
The dynamics are very different from adult or LLL group dynamics.  You can't
wait for them to talk patiently because THEY MIGHT NOT!  They may or may not
take some initiative and get the discussion going on its own as it does so
frequently at LLL meetings.  I'd say about 50/50.
7. I have also found that, regardless of how you look at it, you are some type
of authority figure to them.  It has felt really futile to try and address
them as equals, so I switched my approach a bit to speak to them as
intelligent teens, respectful, but not as peers.  This sounds odd, but it made
the teens uncomfortable at times to be addressed in the ways I usually do for
moms in my group.
8. Don't expect them to call you after the baby is born, even if they need
help.  Ask their permission to contact them if you want to.
9. If this program has a mentoring program, try to get a time to give info to
the mentors.  This made an enormous difference.  The women who mentored the
girls were almost entirely over 40-50 and were very abm oriented.  They
further felt that even if bmilk was best, it was not really an option to the
teenagers whether
for physiological or social reasons.  Once I played up statistics on nutrition
to the infant, attachment, and lowered abuse rates, as well as address the
myths about smoking, poor maternal nutrition, and others that made them feel
that bfing was not an option for their girls, I suddenly had a whole team on
"our" side.  I also gave the mentors a list of resources to get problems or
questions addressed; books and phone numbers.

Phew, hope some of this helps.

Karen Seroussi, LLLL