Kendra Atkins-Boyce, Portland, Oregon

If you’ve ever experienced breastfeeding difficulties and attended a La Leche League meeting, you know the importance and power of a room filled with other breastfeeding mothers.

Many nursing mothers stop attending meetings as soon as

• latching or supply issues are resolved.
• breastfeeding becomes more routine.
• breastfeeding feels like a dance with choreography they have mastered.

However, there are benefits to attending meetings beyond the early weeks or months. Here are a few reasons to consider attending even after breastfeeding is going well.

1. You can offer your hard-earned wisdom to new mothers who stand where you once stood. Let’s face it. The random mother you meet in the grocery store or at the daycare center is probably not receptive to your advice about the size of a breast pump flange or the best nursing bra. A new mother at an LLL meeting will probably appreciate hearing what worked for you. She is someone who actually wants to know. It will be a place to download nursing tips and trivia occupying your valuable brain space.

2. You can serve as a beacon to help her past that obstacle. Even though growth spurts and teething may create new challenges, you can attest to the fact that your baby now sleeps more than an hour at a time or has an improved latch. As you remember those first moments of motherhood, the beginning stages can seem eternal when you are in the midst of them. It can really help to see how the mother of a six-month-old or a six-year-old looks when she has more rest. By simply showing up, new mothers who are still figuring out how to balance their own needs with the needs of an infant will see you as a symbol of better days to come.

3. You can remember how far you have come on your breastfeeding journey. In the bleary-eyed early days, you may have felt like you would never get the hang of nursing your new little one. You may have wondered if you could make it another hour, much less a day, a month, or a year. In the faces of brand new mothers, you will catch a glimpse of your own past and perhaps look at your past self with a new level of compassion.

As you can see, attending meetings when you’ve passed your own hour of need not only benefits new mothers but also holds unexpected value for more experienced mothers.