Booklet of Meeting Openings

Transcription

1 Booklet of Meeting Openings Add variety to the openings of your meetings! This booklet is very helpful for new Leaders and adds spice to the meetings of experienced Leaders. Here are dozens of ways to word a qualifying statement, talk about membership and the history of LLL. Keep this handy as you plan your opening remarks for your next Series Meeting. Introduction Opening remarks set the friendly, accepting tone of the meeting. Qualifying statements, an introduction to La Leche League, and information about LLL membership are a few of the elements the Leader's Handbook suggests to open each Series Meeting. Whether you are a new or experienced Leader, this booklet has ideas for you. How to use this booklet. After you have chosen your meeting topic and questions, select a paragraph from each of the sections, add introductions of the Group, Leaders and Group workers, reminders (for instance, to take care of babies and get any questions answered later), and an opportunity for everyone to introduce herself, to form a complete beginning for your meeting. Consider balance: a short presentation on one part might go well with a longer one about another. Feel free to use these ideas as starting points for your own variations.! Remember that making a qualifying statement at the beginning of the meeting gives important information but doesn't replace making another when necessary during the discussion.! Modify the membership statement so it includes the benefits of membership that your Group offers; for example, not every Group gives a 10% discount on catalogue items.! For introductions, (when you ask Group workers or participants to introduce themselves), model a short answer as you introduce yourself so that this part of the meeting is not overlong. Many Leaders have contributed to this booklet. It contains ideas collected and adapted from a variety of sources over the past few years. Some ideas have appeared in Leaven or Collage; others have come from LLLC-BC/Yukon Leaders. If you have more ideas to add to a future edition, please send them to the address below. If you like this booklet and would like to share copies with your friends, could you please send $2 to LLLC of BC and Yukon (in care of the address below) for each copy distributed to support the work done to put this together. If you would like to order a copy, send $4 to: Cynthia Waiz A Avenue Surrey BC V3S 9V2 waiz@shaw.ca

2 Qualifying Statements Remember that making a qualifying statement at the beginning of the meeting gives important information but doesn't replace making another when necessary during the discussion. Welcome to La Leche League Canada! Every mother has to make choices about how she cares for her baby and her family. We are here to share with each other some of the ideas that have worked particularly well for us. We believe that breastfeeding can be an important part of mothering. We also believe that you know or will know your baby better than anyone else and therefore you can choose what will work best for you and your family. La Leche League is like a shoe store. Come in and browse through the ideas that are on display. Try on some of the ideas to see if they will fit. If you think they won't, feel free to continue to browse. If you are looking for a custom design, the Leaders [introduce Leaders] are here to assist you. LLL is like a library. Some of us come to enjoy the stories, some to do research, some just to enjoy the atmosphere. We may borrow some of the ideas and take them home with us to try in our own families. Each of us is also writing her own story, which may contain ideas and experiences that might interest others or be helpful to them. La Leche League is like a clothing store. LLL meetings are an opportunity to see and try on a variety of ideas about breastfeeding and mothering. Some of them fit well and we "buy" them right away. Some may need alterations to make them comfortable. Others won't fit at all. Some styles seem strange at first, but when we try them on, we may find they are quite comfortable (or we may not). Please take what fits your family and disregard the rest. La Leche League is like a cookbook. We come to LLL meetings to learn about some breastfeeding and mothering recipes others have found successful. If we like them, we may incorporate them into our own family menus. We'll adapt some of the recipes, and some we'll discard. Some will be quite unfamiliar to us, but may add a delightful new dimension to our family life. As always, please take from the meeting only those ideas that appeal to your family. LLL is more than a class in breastfeeding where one would learn only about the correct methods to successfully breastfeed her baby. As we share our experiences, we also find a wealth of information about mothering. In LLL, breastfeeding is our starting point. So, let's take this opportunity to listen and participate, and choose what works best for our families.

3 Some of us at this meeting may sound excited about breastfeeding. We are! We know that we can find plenty of information about using formula elsewhere. Here, we will present the advantages of breastfeeding, to help in making informed decisions. We offer information about breastfeeding, and suggestions and support to mothers who want to breastfeed. Each family is unique and you will decide what works best for you. La Leche League is a source of information, support, and encouragement for breastfeeding. We also believe that "mothering through breastfeeding is the most natural and effective way of understanding and satisfying the needs of the baby." If some of what you see or hear is different from what you expected or you have any concerns or questions, please ask for clarification. We encourage you to trust yourself and become an expert about your baby. Choose from among the ideas you will hear at this meeting and take home only the ones that will work in your family. Welcome to a La Leche League Canada meeting! Sometimes the meetings can seem overwhelming with all the mothers, babies and toddlers. Before we get started, then, here are some important points:! La Leche League Leaders are volunteers who have breastfed their children and have been trained to help women breastfeed. We receive information and support from La Leche League Canada. The Leaders at this meeting are [introduce Leaders].! LLLC provides information, support, and encouragement to women who want to breastfeed. At Series Meetings, there are lots of good ideas and encouragement that help us enjoy mothering and breastfeeding.! Some of the ideas you hear or the things that you see may be surprising. Some will represent LLLC and others will be people's personal choices. We ask that you take what seems right for you and leave the rest. Please remember that only the LLL Leaders represent La Leche League Canada. If we say anything that makes you wonder, please ask about it. It is the goal of every La Leche League meeting to offer information, support and encouragement to mothers who wish to breastfeed their babies. Whether you're nursing a toddler or have never breastfed before, whatever your breastfeeding goals are, we want to warmly welcome you. Being here helps us to enjoy the best breastfeeding experience possible. At LLL meetings we hear information and suggestions that research and the experience of thousands of mothers have shown to be helpful. Please share your ideas and experiences with us. Take home those that you believe will be useful to you and your family.

4 Our meeting topic tonight is "Nutrition and Weaning." There's lots of information and people have different opinions about these subjects; we will discuss them from a variety of perspectives. Please take from the meeting those ideas that you think might work in your situation. For example, someone might want to know how to wean a younger baby and another might need help with nursing an older child. Someone might have questions about nutrition for the nursing mother and someone else might be interested in introducing whole food to her whole family. Each of us develops a parenting style that is right for us. We receive all kinds of advice about breastfeeding and about parenting, some of it conflicting. We hope you'll find lots of useful information and helpful ideas at our meetings. After gathering all the ideas and information, we have to listen to our own babies and our own hearts and do what seems right for our own families. Please feel free to just listen if that's what you prefer to do. We hope you will want to take part in the discussion. Each of us has something important to offer. Only LLL Leaders [identify the Leaders who are present] have the responsibility to present LLL information and philosophy. We will consider the meeting a success if you find even one idea that you would like to take home to your family.

5 Introducing La Leche League La Leche League is a non-profit, non-sectarian organization founded for the purpose of providing information and support for breastfeeding and mothering through breastfeeding. The name, "La Lay-chay" is Spanish for "the milk." Each LLL Group follows a Series of four meetings based on our manual The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding yet each meeting is unique because it is built around the needs, interests, and experiences you bring to it. Leaders are available for telephone helping at any time. We do not give medical advice; however we do have information relating to medical situations which we will be happy to share with you, should you need it. [Hold up a copy of New Beginnings] LLL is here to help mothers breastfeed. And, as the stories in New Beginnings show, LLL does much more than that. Our philosophy goes beyond breastfeeding. It recognizes the importance of identifying and meeting a baby's or toddler's needs. Experience has taught us that breastfeeding helps a mother learn about responding to her child's needs. Nursing your baby, making it safe for your toddler to explore, understanding and working through the ups and downs of a child's ages and stages, and providing nutritious food may not seem like significant tasks especially when they need to be done over and over again. But the loving care you give your family does make a difference. Breastfeeding a baby is natural, but many of us need information and support as we learn how to do it. The seven women who founded LLL [ ] years ago recognised how helpful mother-tomother sharing can be. The fact that you are here shows that you realise how much a support group can help you enjoy your breastfeeding experience. That's what we want to do! Having correct information, even before your baby is born, can help you avoid common problems. If questions do arise, being able to call a Leader for help is often the key to continued success. It is important to distinguish between information based on fact and information based on myth. LLL's information is backed by scientific research and years of experience of thousands of mothers. For the past [ ] years [or Since 1956], LLL has helped women with reliable, up-to-date (sometimes before its time!) information about breastfeeding, childbirth, nutrition, and parenting. We welcome you to our meetings, to share your experience and listen to others'. We hope you will find lots of ideas about breastfeeding and mothering that feel right for your family. LLL was founded to give information and encouragement, mainly through personal help, to all mothers who want to breastfeed their babies. We recognize the unique importance of one mother helping another.

6 La Leche League came into being [ ] years ago [or in 1956] because there was a need for the kind of information and encouragement we offer. Bottle-feeding had become the norm, and many mothers who wanted to breastfeed found themselves with no experienced person to turn to and no reliable information if they met with a problem. Some nursing mothers in Franklin Park, Illinois found they could provide each other with lots of information and support. (They also had the help of some supportive physicians.) Word spread and so did La Leche League. LLL was formed in 1956 by a group of women who gathered, as we are doing now, to talk about breastfeeding and mothering and offer each other information and support from their experience. Now Groups meet around the world and LLL is the largest women's health network. We have several things to offer you, including [name of Group] meetings, literature, and telephone help.! This meeting is an opportunity for mother-to-mother sharing of information and encouragement; mother-to-mother is the basis of LLL's success. Meeting topics are based on information in The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding.! Our printed literature. Our leaflets cover topics from establishing a milk supply to weaning, from breastfeeding through normal difficulties to breastfeeding in special situations. While your doctor is your source of medical advice, we have information that can help you make informed decisions about breastfeeding.! Telephone help. Leaders are experienced nursing mothers who have completed training and receive ongoing education. As volunteers we work out of our homes. If you are unable to reach one Leader, please call another. LLL started [ ] years ago [or in 1956] with a meeting of the seven mothers who are our founders. The basic philosophy has not changed in all that time, because, as one of the Founders puts it, the needs of babies have always been the same and will not change. Picture: a woman breastfeeds her baby, keeps him close, learns how to mother him, and enthusiastically reaches out to help another woman find the joy, satisfaction and benefits she has found. For the last [ ] years LLL leadership has passed from woman to woman in this way. LLL has been in Canada since Another Suggestion LLL Leaders are mothers who have nursed one or more children. We also complete a LLLC Leader training and are accredited by La Leche League. We don't necessarily have all the answers at our fingertips but we can help you to find out the information you need.

7 Membership Remember to modify the membership statement so it includes the benefits of membership that your Group offers; for example, not every Group gives a 10% discount on catalogue items. The LLL membership is [$ ]. Did you know that you can attend meetings of any LLL Group here and around the world? As part of your yearly membership, you will receive a subscription to our bimonthly journal for parents, New Beginnings. In addition, we [or name your Group] offer a discount of 10% on most purchases from the LLL Canada catalogue. Of course, the Group also provides free use of our lending library and you can call on a Leader for telephone help at any time. Your fee helps pay the costs of running the Group so that we can continue to provide information and support to you and other women who want to breastfeed their babies. La Leche League has many things to offer you. Our meetings provide an informal opportunity for you to learn from other mothers and to share ideas that have worked well in your family. The Group Library contains information about breastfeeding, childbirth, child development, discipline, and nutrition, and LLLC publications cover a wide range of subjects related to mothering through breastfeeding. We have a number of leaflets dealing with specific subjects including prematurity, jaundice, caesarean birth, and positioning at the breast. The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding contains a wealth of information and is written in a very readable style. LLLI's bimonthly journal, New Beginnings, has medical updates, book reviews, nursing, parenting and nutrition tips, and wonderfully encouraging stories. LLL Leaders are happy to talk with you at the meeting or by telephone when you need information. You also have much to offer La Leche League. Your membership enables us to pay the costs of keeping the Group going, of providing continuing education to our Leaders, and of maintaining and adding to the Group Library. Your participation in the meeting discussions helps all of us to learn. You help LLL first of all by continuing to come to our meetings. The experiences you share and the questions you ask are the heart of our meetings. You also help when you purchase a membership. LLL Leaders are volunteers, and we are also members. Your membership fee not only helps this Group exist, but also helps LLLC reach out to families all over Canada. The experiences you share and the questions you ask are the heart of our meetings. You also help when you purchase a membership. Memberships are the main source of funding for the Group.

8 We are here to help mothers today because of others who came before you, and your membership helps to ensure that LLL will be here for mothers who come after you in the community, nationally, and around the world. La Leche League is the largest women's health network in the world. I like to think about the many meetings just like this being held all over the world today and almost every day. Our membership dues are [$ ]. When you join LLL you participate in this international woman to woman helping network, a valuable resource for breastfeeding help and support. Your membership brings you six bimonthly issues of New Beginnings, a magazine filled with stories, hints and inspiration from other families. Members are entitled to a 10% discount on purchases from our wide variety of outstanding books and publications on breastfeeding, childbirth, nutrition and parenting. Your membership dues also support LLL activities. If you have benefitted from LLL information or encouragement, you know how important LLL can be to a mother and baby. Your support when you participate in Meetings and when you are a member is important for LLLC [or: for our Group; or: for LLL-Area]. As a member of LLLC, you will receive a subscription to our journal for parents, New Beginnings. In addition, you can receive a discount of 10% on most purchases from the LLLC catalogue. If you want to become a member or renew your membership tonight, our Treasurer [name and point out] or I can write your membership card. I was very career-oriented before my first child was born. Unexpectedly, I discovered that mothering is as fulfilling as any other career. Breastfeeding helped me get to know my baby and that helped me to learn the wonders of caring for [him/her]. I wanted to become a Leader to help others with breastfeeding and finding out about the wonderful world of mothering. You too can get involved in the Group. Please become a La Leche League member. Membership is [$ ]. It will bring you six issues of New Beginnings, a magazine filled with stories and hints from other families. Some members also help by taking on specific Group jobs and participating in monthly evaluation meetings. Your membership dues also support LLL behind the scenes. Our manual, The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding is a little like the owner's manual that comes with a car. It should have come with your baby, but it didn't. If you have not come to this meeting prepared to purchase both the manual and the membership, we encourage you to buy the manual today so that you will have its information on hand [or so that you can refer to it] in the coming month. At the next meeting you can purchase your membership; then you will receive your own subscription to New Beginnings which adds to the information and support you find in the Womanly Art of Breastfeeding, at our [name Group] meetings, and through telephone help. Our main source of funds is membership dues. When you pay [$ ] for a year of meetings, you help this Group exist, and help LLLCanada gather and print information for mothers throughout the country. You also receive our journal, New Beginnings and a discount on the items in the catalogue. Our treasurer can write up your membership card for you if you want to pay today. Another Suggestion Instead of being the one to talk about memberships, let the meeting participants themselves do it. Hand out old copies of New Beginnings and ask, "What does receiving this journal mean to you?" Or ask them what articles they have particularly enjoyed.

9 Something Extra: Personal Introduction Questions It can be important for everyone to have an opportunity to speak at the beginning of a meeting. You might start with everyone introducing herself and her children [or family] and saying what she came to discuss or find out about (whether or not it's related to the meeting topic, be sure she leaves with some information about it). An alternative could be to use an "ice-breaker," a question that is usually related to the meeting topic and helps people ease into the discussion. Some of these questions can also be used during a meeting, "thrown out" to the entire group, to introduce a new aspect of a discussion. Some things to think about:! Imagine how the women you expect to attend would answer the personal introduction question you choose. A pregnant woman, for instance, cannot answer some questions from personal experience, so you might find that it's a good idea to have an alternate question ready.! You might like to have a selection of questions ready in case one "falls flat," is misinterpreted, seems to make someone uncomfortable, or is "exhausted" quickly.! If you choose a question not related to the meeting topic, consider introducing it by saying something like, "Let's introduce ourselves and our families; though this question has nothing to do with the meeting topic, just for fun, tell us... "! Some people are uncomfortable speaking in a group or might not want to answer a specific question; be certain to include a graceful way for them to introduce themselves and say no more (for instance, watch facial expressions and body language and, from time to time repeat the question, prefacing it with something like, "Would you like to tell us...").! Model a short answer as you introduce yourself and keep the introductions moving right along so that this part of the meeting is not overlong. Meeting 1 What would your partner say is the best advantage of breastfeeding? Where did you hear about LLL? What motivated you to breastfeed? Finish this sentence: Breastfeeding gives me time to... What advantage seemed most important when you first decided to breastfeed? When did you first think about breastfeeding your baby? What do you think a mother might miss if she didn't breastfeed her baby? Meeting 2 Share one change having a baby has made in your life. If your partner were here, what would he ask about? Tell us one thing you did to prepare for your baby's arrival. What household task can you accomplish if you have 15 minutes? What would you like to tell your child about his or her birth? People often talk about a "good" baby. How would you describe a good baby? What was your most or least useful baby gift? Tell us a special thing about one of your births. What did you enjoy most about being pregnant or giving birth? Give one suggestion for the early weeks with a new baby. Tell us one memory from the early hours after you [or your partner, if fathers are present] gave birth.

10 While you were pregnant, did you have an impression about breastfeeding that has changed now that you are nursing? Meeting 3 From whom did you get your determination to breastfeed? When did you first see someone nursing her baby? What was your question or concern when you first contacted LLL? How do you pamper yourself? Where do you find your main support for breastfeeding? Is breastfeeding easier or harder than you expected? When did you feel comfortable nursing your baby? Many of us find breastfeeding a little awkward at first. But, with practice (and a little help from our friends), we learn about what makes breastfeeding easy. What helped you to feel comfortable nursing your baby? Name one positive way you've changed since you've had a baby. Did you anticipate or have any problems breastfeeding your baby? How did it turn out? Meeting 4 What is one food that you would like to introduce to your family? How does the cooking you grew up with influence how you feed your family? Tell us about a nutritious meal your whole family has enjoyed recently. What is your favorite nutritious snack? What is your favorite nutritious breakfast food? Name a nutritious summer food treat you look forward to. What is your favorite nutritious recipe? Did you have a food craving in pregnancy? What new and nutritious food have you tried lately? What food (that's good for him) does your child especially like? What is your favorite ethnic food? Name a nutritious finger food for a toddler. Name a good snack for a nursing mother. One need I feel that nursing meets, other than nutrition, is... What foods have other people told you that you shouldn't eat while nursing? Any meeting How did you choose your baby's name? What does your baby's name mean? Name a positive quality or feature that your child inherited or learned from you. If you are pregnant, what do you hope your baby will inherit or learn from you? Tell us one thing that your baby does that he was not doing last month. What kind of day have you had and what motivated you to come tonight? What expectations did you have of LLLC and what have you actually found? How long have you been a member of LLLC? What is your favorite music right now (and why)? Tell us something we don't know about you. (for repeaters) What is one trait you would like to see your child carry into adulthood? What aspect of your mothering do you feel especially good about? What is your favorite nursing spot?

11 What did you do this week that made you glad you are a mother or a mother-to-be? How long have you been involved in La Leche League? Give the title of a book [about nursing/nutrition/childbirth] you have enjoyed recently. Where were you born and how did you come to live in...? What is an interesting or unusual place you have breastfed your baby? What is your favorite local place to go and spend time as a family? What do you take along in your bag to keep baby/children happy and busy? What is a special game your partner plays with baby or a special way they interact? Special Days What do you do to celebrate Valentine's day now that you are more than a couple? Mention one [spring or other season] activity that you have started or are looking forward to. What did you do on Mother's Day? What is your favorite childhood memory of summer [or the current season]? How do you make time to enjoy the sunshine? What is your favorite vacation spot? Name your favorite thing to do with baby on long, rainy days. Name something that makes your holiday season special for your family.