My co-Leader and I met with a group of pregnant students at the local high
school today.  I felt well-prepared because I had received lots of good
information from posts several Lactnetters wrote about teens & bf, and from two
articles in Leaven.  They were very quiet and hard to get to open up, but
finally one volunteered that she had bf her 2nd baby who was a premie (she's 18
and pg with #3!) but that she didn't like it because it" hurt all the time."  I
asked her how long she had nursed -- 6 months!  I asked her if it had hurt every
time, and she said yes!  The other girls were very interested in this, and when
we asked the others if they were planning on breastfeeding, and if not, why not,
the only reason they could give was that they were afraid it would hurt.  We
talked about positioning, demonstrated with a doll, etc., but couldn't seem to
get past this point.  We talked about advantages to the mom & baby, modelled
discreet nursing, talked about pumps, etc., but they kept coming back to the
issue of pain.  Two were very definitely against bf, and two were kind of on the
fence about it.  They all took copies of all the information sheets and
brochures we had brought with us, I just hope they read them!

We even suggested they just "try it for a few days or weeks" and see if they
like it.  I had expected questions about birth control pills, smoking, alcohol,
sex, but none of those things came up.  Just sore nipples...

Hope we at least made them curious enough about it that they will try it.

Cathy Kaiser, LLL Leader, feeling like I'm butting my head up against a brick
wall sometimes!