Oh, Donna, *beautifully* handled!  A lovely outcome, and yes, she sounds
like someone who would *soak up* the sights at a LLL meeting.

You cause me to wonder, for the first time, if mothers might have a
*biological* need for visual cues in addition to whatever we offer them
intellectually... and of course that's what LLL provides.

As higher primates, we're programmed to learn bfing/mothering skills by
watching other mothers.  I've always assumed that we *can* replace that
visual, mother-to-mother learning by working one-on-one with an experienced
but "childless" female (an LC visit or a LLLL home visit)... but maybe we
really, really can't replace it totally.

Like the client I had some years ago - a speech pathologist who was really
worried by all her baby's sounds.  No reassurance from me was enough.  She
came to a LLL meeting and asked the same questions of mothers holding
babies.  They couldn't respond at my professional level, but at the end of
the meeting, the mother said, "You know, I was going to go from here
straight to the doctor's office.  Now I think I'll just go home and enjoy my
baby."

I'd always thought that meeting was icing on the cake for her.  Maybe,
instead, it met a fundamental biological need.
--
Diane Wiessinger, MS, IBCLC, LLLL  Ithaca, NY
www.wiessinger.baka.com

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