Heather wrote,

> We already have the recorded voice saying 'all our counsellors are
> volunteers working from their own homes' which is a revelation to a
> lot of people : )
>
Understanding that LLL is not a publicly- or privately-funded service
seems to be the root of both problems and gratification. I, too, have
had recent calls asking me what LLL is or when my office was open, and
my feeling is that these calls will increase with the proliferation of
breastfeeding services. What is gratifying, however, is the reaction of
the mothers who really do appreciate the fact that we volunteer our time
out of our interest and commitment to helping them mother and breastfeed
their babies.  I know there is a lot of bad-mouthing, and I know that
some of the mothers I talk to don't bother telling their friends that
LLL helped them. I don't really need for them to tell other people about
the time they were on the point of giving a bottle of formula and called
up and burst into tears so that I had to ask yes / no questions for five
minutes. I don't need them to say that despite being such good mothers
they had days when they were thinking of putting their baby in foster
care. I got to be there when they said that they would try "that"
(whatever that was) and call me back to let me know, and a lot of times
I got to be there when they phoned back and said that things were so
much better and the baby was sooo (fill in the gushy adjective of your
choice here). When I hear a negative comment, I think about those
mothers, and about the time last week when I had tears in my eyes myself
telling my husband  "that's why I'm in this business".
Jo-Anne

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