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When I went to my first La Leche League meeting with my four-month-old, I wasn’t sure what to expect. I was given the blue copy of the Womanly Art of Breastfeeding when I was pregnant. I devoured the book. I felt at home with everything I read. The friend who gave the book to me told me that if I didn’t have any bottles in the house, I would not be tempted to use them.
My daughter was born in Bangkok, where we were posted to the US Embassy. I really didn’t have anyone to talk to about breastfeeding. There were no La Leche League Groups there at that time.
As soon as I went into that first meeting, back in the States I knew I was “home”. Seeing babies with teeth and shoes who were still nursing was new to me, but I learned about all the various ways we mother our babies.
I started to work on becoming a LLL Leader as soon as I was able to. In fact, I received my Leader card in the mail at my in-law’s house as we were about to leave for another overseas posting.
I never knew back then that I would “still” be in La Leche League. But here I am. Over forty years later I am still an active Leader.
We lived in Poland under communism, and I was not permitted to form a group or hold any kind of meetings. In fact, while we were there it was even illegal to have a printing press. So I did my work by correspondence with La Leche League International. I got my husband’s Polish secretary to help translate basic breastfeeding information into Polish. I then mailed the Polish language information to LLLI in, Illinois. My understanding is that most of the requests for the Polish language breastfeeding information were ordered by Polish Americans and they mailed it back to Poland.
I have many more overseas La Leche League tales to tell. But now I want to write about the wonderful group that grew out of being a La Leche League Leader.
In 1996 we were just starting to write, send and receive email. My family and I were again overseas. This time in Western Australia. I was active with a LLL Group there, but was missing my friends back home. Plus, as much as I love working with mothers and babies, I was entering a new stage of parenting. Teens. Kids leaving home. Aging parents. And hot flashes!
There was an online email listserv for La Leche League Leaders. It was so good to connect. But several of us were in the same boat. We didn’t need support with potty training or night nursing.
Norma Ritter started a group just for “us”. We decided on the name “Power Surge”, or PS. We capped membership at a little over 40 members.
In the last 20+ years we have remained a cohesive group. We have been though some members becoming widows, losing parents, losing children and grandchildren. A few of the members of this group have died as well.
The first time a large number of actually met in person was at the La leche League International Conference in Washington, DC in 1997. I have pictures and memories of that time that I will cherish
One member of the group had an idea. She suggested that we all contribute a bead that we felt represented each our own unique personality. Then we each contributed enough beads for each member to make their own necklace from the beads. When any one of us needs support, prayers and good thoughts we spread out PS Angel wings and wear our beads.
Somewhere I have a list of which bead came from which “PSsister” and why it was chosen. Some were handmade, some purchased. Some were even made of rolled up pages from New Beginnings!
Comments:
- Patricia Lawrence Spanjer And because PS was full, some of us formed another group, Spice of LL Life. SOLLL OR SOUL. I am part of that group and we are still going strong/
- Marsha Johnson Chartrand Like you, Nancy Thompsen Sherwood, we in SOLLL feel incredibly fortunate to have found each other. <3 And we're grateful to the Power Surgers for setting the example and bringing us together!
- Edie Lindsey Eckman I love this story, and the influence so many LLLLeaders and friends had on my life.
- Anne Jones Bacheller Edie Lindsey Eckman I was thinking the very same thing 💖😭💖💖💖
- Nancy McAvoy Gajdosik ♥️👍♥️ You are truly the epitome of LLL 🥰
- Friends of La Leche League I have been very lucky!
- Jill Levien Interesting to read everyone's LLL journey to leadership. I was not one of those moms who felt instantly at home. In fact I remember being shocked at seeing a toddler who walked and talked and wore shoes climb up onto her mother's lap to nurse.
Little did I know that 2 years later I was still nursing my oldest when I became pregnant with our middle child. Or that I would tandem nurse my middle and youngest child. . - Alice Dench Ziring I think many of us were shocked/surprised to see those first nursing toddlers. ;-)
- Barbara Mullins Loved reading this, Nancy, and I don't know where my life would have gone without this loving, supportive network of like-minded women! We've been together through family-centered life and birth - and family-centered end of life care.
- Sarah Ostrowski Simmons 🥰 I am a LLL baby! We lived (well still do actually) in New Castle, PA we drove over 2 hours for meetings in Cleveland, OH. My mom talks about her first meetings much like you described yours. We would meet at a park and she said they would ring a bell for lunch and dozens of "big" kids would pour in! I met my first best friend in that LLL group too. I still talk to the leader from that group and many of the friends my family made in it. Fast forward to me at 25 and I walked into my first LLL meeting as a mom, the whole meeting was spent asking me questions about growing up in LLL :-)
Sadly shortly later that group in my hometown disbanded :-( .
Now I am almost 33 years old currently nursing my 2yr old last baby as I write this post. LLL has been such an amazing part of my life and taught me that many moms nurse long, my daughter nursed 33 mos. It also taught me to fight for it while in the hospital with a 36wker. Thank you for all of your lifetime of work to share BF around the world! Love - Sarah Russell Sarah Ostrowski Simmons I went to college one town over from you. 🙂 I still have friends in the area. Do you have a group to attend now?
- Sarah Ostrowski Simmons Sarah Russell i think there is one in boardman, OH. I was in MOPs and most of the moms in that group were crossovers from lll and our local nurse family partnership and wic office are HUGE advocates and have a support group too :-) my biggest personal challenge has been only having 1 car, so that I could stay home with the kids so getting to meetings was a challenge sometimes.
- Sarah Russell Sarah Ostrowski Simmons that is hard! So much can be done online now... especially since everything shut down a few months ago. If you are interested in pursuing LLL leadership, there is definitely a way to make it happen!
- Sarah Ostrowski Simmons Sarah Russell awesome I may! It has always been a passion of mine! Kick myself often for not applying for peer counselor at wic a few years ago... I am currently the librarian at New Castle Christian Academy... but LLL leadership is definitely on my heart!
- Chris Weideman Newlon What a beautiful tale of your continuing journey with LLL. Beautiful and I am just so lucky to have met you in New Orleans!
- Margie Hord de Mendez What a fascinating story! And in several countries you were able to make an impact, despite limitations. Congrats!
- Babette Cohn Love you Nancy!! This was beautifully said, of course. You continue to inspire all of us who followed in your footsteps as LLL Leaders. I remember that 1997 Conference and how proud we all were to be local leaders in the host city! Angela and I were there with our "babies", with mine turning 23 years old next Wednesday - it still feels like it was yesterday.
- Suki Sil Such wonderful stories, what an amazing international community you helped to build and then build again! Waving at you from Sydney, Australia. Best wishes
- Janice Pickett Beautiful story. My first LLL meeting was like meeting all my friends even though I didn’t know anyone there. LLL Leaders make a difference because for some reason they can relate to whatever one is experiencing.
- Kristi Caw Ramey This thread, all these messages make me so happy. My first LLL International Conference was in 97 as well, in DC
- Kimberli Wall Hartwick What a great life you have lead so far! I would not have been able to enjoy my independent, non-sleeping, constantly nursing, first born had my neighbor not dragged me to LLL of Redlands, CA group when I was pregnant. What a life changing day. By thtime that baby was born I had read the 'blue book' several times and sent it to my Mother. She read it and became a big part of changing how babies in our family were raised from that moment on. I still am a leader too, Children 41,38, 31, and 28 (they have weaned. :) ) Grandmother to 6. Still doing this because I remember how wonderful it was to be helped by a calm voice on the phone, and a group of women who willing shared their experiences.
- Helen Russ Love the connection necklace.
- Terri Willner I was so lucky to know Nancy as a co leader in VA early in my LLL time and she was a big positive influence on me. My 3 sisters all became Leaders too, and 3 of us were active at the same time in Eastern PA, my daughter claims she was described as part of “that family” when she helped with children’s play area during a conference .... no grand babies for me yet but I think I have a niece applying for leadership now!
- Alice Dench Ziring I, also, felt as if I had 'come home' and 'found my niche' when I found LLL and then became a Leader. I applied for LLL leadership without ever having been to a meeting, as I was living overseas with no local group available. However, I had the old blue book living overseas with no local group available. However, I had the old blue WAB, as well as a copy of Karen Pryor's _Nursing Your Baby_, and I had subscribed to "LLL News", the precursor to "New Beginnings". My application took what seemed to me a very long 6 months, as it was all done by snail mail from overseas. As a fellow Power Surger...named for our perimenopausal 'power surges' (aka hot flashes)...I found a sisterhood that sustains me to this day, even though I retired last year as a Leader...after over 40 years. In addition, I have a number of other wonderful long-time female friends who I met through LLL.
- Anne Marie Arsenault Just so beautiful...LLL-ish. My besties are mostly women I met and shared with back in 1970-80's.
- Sharon Meserole Miller Such an amazing journey! I too felt such relief when I attended my first LLL meeting 46 years ago! I was a young mother ( almost 21), with no friends who had children yet. My husband worked 2nd shift, and many evenings my Dad would come over to keep me company! Back when I was born, there was little encouragement for mothers to nurse. So my Mom and Dad watched me learn to nurture my baby by breastfeeding. They became great supporters over the years as my family grew from 3-7! 5 beautiful girls that I couldn’t be prouder of! When my 2nd daughter arrived, I quickly began the process to become a leader. I moved 3 times through the years, but always found LLL moms to be kind and caring. Now the girls are all grown. And I am so thankful for the growing I had as a mother through the years... Now I have 15 grandchildren who have been nurtured with love! Thank you LLL for touching our lives with much knowledge and a legacy that I hope will continue through generations to come! ❤️
- Marie Foley-Nielsen I remember making many beads to bring to that conf, I hand painted a gingerbread man as my trademark. My crafting business card reads "The Gingerbread Lady". Did craft shows for thirty or more years, using my earnings to offset the cost of Catholic school tuition for my 8 children. Now my age slows my skill, but will always make gifts. Still miss LLLConf. What ever happened to my necklace?
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