Dear LACTNET friends: Greetings from Yucatan, Mexico This is my first posting on the LACTNET, having joined just a couple of days ago, so I thought it would be best to tell you a bit about myself as an introduction. I'm anxious to 'meet' each of you through our communications on this wonderful cyber-space highway.....in our case might we call it the MILKY WAY? (did anyone groan?...sorry!...(smile) ) Originally from the Chicago area, I have been living in Merida, Yucatan, Mexico for the past 22 years. I came here in 1971 to visit the Baha'is and met a yucatecan member of the Baha'i Faith and married him 2 years later. MORAL: You'd better be careful when you travel! I have two children, Riaz - almost 17 and Shirin,11...both nursed according to the book, so to speak. 6 mo.BF only, and then nursed until a bit past 3 yrs. (Luckily, living surrounded by the Mayan culture and native people, I received little flack about this extended nursing) People in the villages openly nurse in public, and even the urban women are not uncomfortable about nursing in front of doctors, etc. What a relief from the U.S. and people's up-tightness about revealing the breast! In 1979 I began sharing my experience/teaching pregnant mothers at the local Natural Childbirth Center when my son was 9 mo. old...and soon found myself doing house calls for free, out of my zeal to help others to breastfeed successfully. Later on I began to charge a minimal fee (on the recommendation of some close Dr. friends AND from the women themselves, who felt that people will value your counsel and expertise if they have to pay something for it,however minimal the fee) As the years passed, I became known here in Merida as an 'expert' (ha-ha) on BF, and I supposed this was true,to a small degree, since 16 yrs.ago NOBODY cared much or knew much about successful nursing here, and I was basically the only source of valid info, thanks to my LLL literature, etc. and my own personal experience. As the years went by, each experience taught me a bit more, and after about 15 years of plugging away, hitting my head against the wall of the medical community, FINALLY THE BABY FRIENDLY HOSPITAL INITIATIVE CHANGED IT ALL. Here in Mexico the Gov't has thrown its weight 100% behind this program, and Mexico has over 80 hospitals which have passed UNICEF inspection - and earned their UNICEF recognition as BABY FRIENDLY HOSPITALS. In the state of Yucatan we have 7 UNICEF-certified hospitals. To just give you an idea of how excited about breastfeeding the community,in general is, - a local radio station invited me to do a weekly radio program on Breastfeeding from Nov. to Feb. - reaching thousands of women. Women called in with questions LIVE on the air, and it was a wonderful way to influence women of many social-economic levels. The local T.V. station has also broadcast several interviews on breastfeeding, and for the second one I invited a successful nursing mother and her 4 mo. old baby to give her testimonial. Teaching by example brings home the message to those doubt-filled women who have had their confidence undermined by almost everyone. I share all this with you all, as a message of cheer. The change that has taken place in my city has been 15 yrs. in coming....but progress is being made, thank the Lord! Nevertheless, during all these years, I had no knowledge of the existence of ILCA, nor that what I did here, all by my lonesome, had become a full-blown respected and accepted profession....and that the IBLCE offers a recognized certification which is now a prestigious achievement. What a wonderful and marvelous discovery - to learn that I have a whole family of fellow-lovers of breastfeeding to join. In March, I attended my first LLLI Lactation Specialist Workshop near Chicago, and was 'blown-away' by simply being in the same room with about 70 other gals with whom I had so much in common. One of the greatest outcomes of this experience was sort of being 'adopted' by the Chicago-area LACTATION SUPPORT GROUP, via my new-born friendship with IBCLC's Patricia Drazin and Mary Kay. I guess I'm sort of their 3rd World Member.They have been so generour in sharing publications,etc. Let this be a public THANKYOU, Ladies! I'll be in Phoenix at the ILCA conference, and hope to meet some of you "LACTNETers", as Kathleen Auerbach calls us. Thank you for taking the time to read this lenthy missive. I'll be briefer in the future, I promise. Greetings from the Land of the Maya! regards, Roberta