The LLL-Texas Conference

The conference was over the weekend and it was so wonderful. I have been a member of La Leche League for eleven years but I had never gone to a state conference before. It is hard for us to afford motels and such and this was the first time it was ever here in Corpus Christi, thanks to two of our wonderful local Leaders who organized it and the other wonderful Leaders who helped pull it off. It was wonderful.

It was so wonderful to be around so many mothers and babies and fathers and children, all of whom were trying to change the world a little bit in their gentle way. I got to hear one of the Founding Mothers speak and that really brought home how much has changed in the world since LLL came into being, how LLL has changed the world in many, many ways in the last fifty years. All our lives, we hear about history in terms of war, as if that is the main or only significant force in people's lives; it is always good to get a taste of how herstory is full of important events that have nothing to do with violence. The Founding Mother talked about HIV research, physician education and a host of topics. She told us about how, not so very long ago, LLL fathers would handcuff themselves to hospital gurneys so they could be with their wives during childbirth, a thing that was strictly forbidden in most hospitals less than forty years ago.

Over two days, I went to sessions on active-alert children, Texas legislation, slow weight gain & failure to thrive, creative writing and publishing, latching-on and breastfeeding problems in the first forty-eight hours, babywearing, what small families can learn from big families, and formula marketing. I also heard author Hilary Flower speak on gentle discipline, not the annoying how-to sort of parenting advice you hear so much of, but an understanding presentation on the ways our personal dfficulties (being run down, anger, not accepting ourselves because we make mistakes, etc.) make it hard for us to parent the way we individually want to at times and the importance of being gentle with ourselves if we want to be gentle with our children. This was the first time I ever got to meet Hilary in person (she has written for Lone Star Ma) and see her gorgeous children and that was great fun.

While I went to most of these sessions, Lone Star Pa took the girls to sessions where they did arts and crafts and songs and had fun. We would meet up in between for nursing and visiting and sometimes I took the baby into a session with me if she needed a nap or her sister would wander in to sit on the floor and lean against my legs for awhile. There was also a playroom for the kids and a bookstore and a silent auction and tons of exhibitors with cool booths.

I was supposed to be doing evening registration on Satuday night, but after I had been there for awhile and no one came to register so late, the Leaders shut down the registration booth and encouraged me to catch the rest of the session on latch-on problems that they were going to attend. They said I would love the speaker. The lactation consultant and scholar who spoke about latch-on problems was so amazingly brilliant that I told Lone Star Pa that I thought we would need to marry her, but he reminded me that the government won't let us - sniff. She was really amazing.

On Sunday afternoon, the conference ended with a slide show of pictures from the many moments of the conference and a rousing performance, complete with props, of Down By The Bay by many of the little children in attendance. It was really wonderful. A big shout out to our Leaders for doing this and a big shout out to LLL for always being there for moms and kids: thanks!!!