Dear Lactnetters, I think, many of us have recognized, that our own experience influences that, what we know, what we see, what we say, what we teach. And even, when we don't have the consious experience, it does matter! And every new experience changes my behaviour, often only a little, and when it is such a big experience as giving birth and breastfeeding myself, a lot changes. That's why I want to thank you, Jessica, to share this experience with us. Through this posts I again thought about my own experience and my own particular "glasses" with wich I see people, women, problems. I think, it is very important to know, that we are influenced by our own experience. And although we try to be as scientific as possible, many of our advices in secret are not scientific, but personal! I don't think, that is a problem, on the contrary, I think it is a challenge and a great opportunity, as long as we know, that our practice is influenced by our personal experience. That is, why I think, one of the best courses the AFS offers for future "Stillberaterinnen", (that is, counsellors of mothers), is the course: "my own breastfeeding history". In this course we reflect our own breastfeeding history: Are we breastfed ourselves, have we seen other women breastfeeding, have we breastfed ourselves, what problems did we have (or didn't we have!), what joys did we have (or didn't we have). It shows, that I react different on a problem, I had myself. This course has helped me tremendously in reflecting how my personal experience influences my work, and I am grateful about it. Many greetings from the Black Forrest Elien Rouw, Bühl Arbeitsgemeinschaft Freier Stillgruppen. *********************************************** The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(TM) mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html