I know that many others have had input in relation to speaking to health
care professionals lately, but I thought of one change I have done in the
last 4 year that I would like to share -

I rarely give out handouts!  Most of the time, they ended up in some lost
corner of an office - in a filing cabinet - or worse of all, in the trash
can.  After all the effort these took to make (and translate) I was getting
very frustrated.

Then I realized that the best thing is to give out a book or booklet.  Pam
Wiggins', Amy Spangler's or Gail Hertz' are all very good - meet different
needs, and if the person that gets them does not use them, (s)he is more
likely to either put it in a bookshelf or give it to someone who could make
use of it.

I did continue making one handout with resources in our community, but
stopped all writing, re-writing, correcting, editing, etc. - and also did
not have to worry whether what I was writing was originally mine - or
something I had gleaned on Lactnet or some other reading that I was now
using as "mine" without giving due credit (mostly because I didn't remember
where I had read it.).

The cost of all the above books is very reasonable, can easily be added to
the conference fee, or can be brought to the meeting (if it is free of
charge to the participants) so that those who want to can buy them for a
minimal charge.

PS - I am not a stock-holder of the stock for any of the corporations <;-)
grin> that produce the previously mentioned books...


Jeanette Panchula, BSW, RN, IBCLC, LLLL
Vacaville, CA
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