A Leader’s perspective- What keeps us going

Gwynneth Jacobs is a volunteer group Leader for La Leche League South Africa. She is also a full-time working mother of two beautiful boys. She discovered the LLLSA Facebook group with her first child and loved reading everyone’s posts and information about breastfeeding. In time she trained as a breastfeeding peer counsellor and later as a Leader. 

She describes how she encourages mothers in her work environment to maintain breastfeeding after returning from maternity leave.

My Wednesday started with me not being too keen on the work day ahead, after a rough start filled with ups and downs, awaiting the next bump in the road. Coincidentally, it was also the day a colleague returned to work from maternity leave. Having supported her during her pregnancy in preparation for breastfeeding, the last contact I had was when I checked in with her after her baby was born. I had chatted to her about the importance of breastfeeding and the power of skin to skin. I had invited her to our LLLSA Facebook group and tagged her in helpful threads to get her prepared while pregnant. She had a sister who was breastfeeding her two year old and I hoped that would provide a good support system for her. She didn’t contact me again and I didn’t want to make a nuisance of myself by initiating contact every time. Shortly after the birth her name popped up on a different Facebook parenting group, asking about sleep training. I kept myself in check, stopped myself from making contact, told myself to know my boundaries and not to overstep....although I was burning to reach out.

Gwynneth (second from left) with other pregnant colleagues when she was expecting her second baby in 2021

Later that morning she came to greet us in the office. Again, I reminded myself not to bring up breastfeeding, also scared of the answer should the topic come up. So we chatted about the baby and about her husband and their new role as parents. And then she turned to me and said: You must come with me now. “Where to?”, I asked. “I need you to open the door for me.” She wanted me to come with her to grant her access to our expressing bay. And with those words the sun came out and the dark clouds from earlier that morning disappeared. She was still breastfeeding!

My colleague went on to share with me that she had been following the posts and reading the comments on the LLLSA group by the other mommies. She had read the articles shared and learned so much about breastfeeding by simply following the info shared. She said she discovered that her expressed milk would smell sour after only one day in the fridge, but she thought it should be fine for up to five or more days. Through the group she discovered that lipase was changing the smell of her breast milk and scalded her milk after expressing. It helped and her baby was happy to drink it. [LLLSA comment: Please see updated information on smelly milk here https://www.lllsa.org/milk-issues. Scalding is not supported by research.]

My colleague shared that she considered sleep training, out of desperation. But she decided not to, through other moms who advised against it. I heard her telling another colleague that it gets better as the baby grows older, that things are going much better. I looked at this confident, glowing first time mom and my heart burst with pride.

If I am honest, I didn’t think she would still be breastfeeding. I imagined the conversation going along the lines of her stating she didn’t have enough milk and the baby being on formula, her milk having dried up. I took the lack of contact and difficulties in the early days as indications of her moving in a different direction. And yet, here she was proving me wrong. This mother’s story was so encouraging. 

Gwynneth and work colleagues celebrated World Breastfeeding Week in 2019

Sometimes as Leaders we often never hear from a mother whom we have been in contact with. We trust that the info we shared will be used and that the mothers will be strong enough to trust in themselves and their motherly instincts. I am so scared of being too overbearing with breastfeeding passion, and that I might push mothers away with my enthusiasm. But those who want the help will use it. My trust in the support of LLLSA’s Facebook group has again been reaffirmed. My breastfeeding support for mothers and what I do is not in vain. I feel motivated that the work I do as a LLL leader is helping mothers and babies to breastfeed. And it was what I needed that day to keep me doing what I am doing to help mothers reach their breastfeeding goals, one mother at a time.

Gwynneth (LLLSA Leader and mother of two)

-Written August 2019