Mother’s support group setting up shop in Strathmore

Miriam Ostermann
Times Associate Editor

 

Being the first among her friends and family members to make the decision of breastfeeding her children, Angela Meyer spent endless hours researching to find advice and a support network with other mothers.
When numerous online sources kept referring back to the La Leche League, a national organization of volunteers dedicated to providing encouragement and sharing knowledge with women wanting to breastfeed, Meyer began reading one of the charitable organization’s publications, The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding.
Despite introducing Meyer to the La Leche League and providing answers to many of her questions, the book also shed awareness on the meetings taking place across Canada. Having received the support she needed from the group in Chestermere, Meyer is now launching a La Leche League support group in Strathmore.
“Studies have shown that in Canada about 90 per cent of mothers start out breastfeeding but by around the sixth month that number has dropped really significantly to 24 per cent,” said Meyer, La Leche League leader. “I find that a lot of mothers are giving up because they’re not well supported. It could be they don’t have support from their spouses, from their family, from their friends, so they feel like they’re fighting an uphill battle … and we need to know where we can go to get help.”
The monthly meetings provide a platform for advice and anecdotes, while creating a mother-to-mother support networking opportunity. Currently, there are more than 160 La Leche League Canada groups in communities country-wide. The La Leche League International (LLLI) was established 60 years ago, by a number of Illinois mothers, when breastfeeding was rare. Several years later, in the 1960s, Canada held its first meeting in Quebec.
According to Meyer the local meetings will be focused on various topics, but fluctuate depending on discussions and specific questions brought forward by those in attendance.
“I really wanted to bring a group out to Strathmore to help extend the reach that the La Leche League offers to mothers in this area,” Meyer said. “Many of the concerns that mothers have are really about the practical day-to-day aspects of mothering breast-fed babies and because leaders have their own experience breastfeeding their own babies, we’ve heard about the experience of many other mothers.”
La Leche League meetings in Strathmore are being held at the Strathmore Parent Link Centre on the third Tuesday’s of every month at 6:30 p.m. The program is free to attend and the leaders can also be reached via telephone or e-mail for advice and assistance at 403-242-0277 or angela@lllc-alberta.ca. The first meeting will take place on March. 22.