Anne Altshuler wrote:

 >Some professionals who come to breastfeeding conferences have no
personal experience with breastfeeding or parenting breastfed babies.
They may have dealt only with tiny babies in the NICU and are trying
to gain information for sitting the IBLCE exam.  They may have not
seen older nursing babies before, and certainly not in a big, public
venue.  So a lot of peripheral learning goes on.<

And it is not only learning about the breastfeeding. It is also
learning about the mothering!

If you have never seen children at conferences, then it is natural to
be a bit wary of what might happen. Seeing mothers model good
mothering by attending to the needs of their little ones is one of the
most effective ways of learning how to do two (or more!) things at
once. The mothers who are attending their first conference with their
babies learn too. They see how the more experienced mothers try to
anticipate and ward off fussiness by bringing out a new toy or a
snack, and how they quickly respond to an noisy child by taking him
outside the room until he has quietened down.

At conferences where children are welcome, many start off each session
by stating that the most important thing attendees can do is to take
care of their children's needs and to be considerate of the needs of
the other participants. Think of how much better this world would be
if we all did that in our daily lives :)

Norma Ritter, IBCLC, RLC
www.NormaRitter.com
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