>I read thru the comments and was appalled at how LLLLeaders come 
>across.  Scarey, really.  I don't know or have ever known about any 
>Leaders like that.  Is it the mom's emotional state when BF fails 
>and she has to blame someone?  So sad.  I have personally walked 
>into kitchens and made bottles for babies who need to be fed NOW.
>Maybe we need to spread the message about 1. Feed the baby, 2. 
>Preserve the milk supply, 3. Get help more broadly thru LLL.  Pat 
>(who has been a leader longer than most of you have been on earth 
>:-)  1967!


I don't get it either.

I have known many LLL people this side of the Atlantic and I could 
never imagine them being cruel and insensitive to mothers.

I am also someone who handles complaints from consumers about my own 
organisation, and I have done for years. Honestly, I don't recall any 
about a breastfeeding counsellor being unkind or judgemental or 
ignoring a starving baby (the complaints are more about us being 
'breastfeeding counsellors' and therefore making women who don't bf 
feel guilty, or for not demo-ing ff in a class and therefore making 
women who don't bf feel guilty.....I know, I know......).  The one 
sole complaint that came anywhere near this was someone who wrote a 
long email castigating a bfc who curtailed the phone call abruptly - 
on investigation, this bfc had received a text message from her young 
teen daughter who was in difficulties somewhere and needed urgent 
help, but the bfc had still taken the time to give the caller an 
alternate source of help.

But I see comments on line or in newspapers accusing us of personally 
criticising a woman for using formula, or being horrible to someone 
who has asked us for support, and while I suppose any system can have 
its glitches over the 40-plus  years we have been in existance and 
the thousands upon thousands upon thousands of encounters we have 
had, I *know*  this must be rare.

Yes, I think we need broad shoulders. Women do blame us when we 
cannot fix things.

Heather Welford Neil
NCT bfc, tutor, UK
-- 
http://www.heatherwelford.co.uk

http://heatherwelford.posterous.com

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