Breastfeeding Awareness Week in Cantania, Sicily, Italy
Grazia De Fiore-McKeown
Catania Sicily Italy
From: LEAVEN, Vol. 40 No. 6, December 2004 - January 2005, p. 138.
I’m an LLL Leader. I
was accredited in France and moved to Italy. I trained with Corinne
Dewandre while I was living in France and, some time after that, my
husband, our daughter, and I decided to move back to Italy. Currently,
I live in Sicily, which is one of Italy’s many beautiful regions.
The immense stretches of gorgeous coastline come at a price, though,
because Sicily is isolated from the mainland.
Once I was settled in my
town of Catania, I set about helping and counseling breastfeeding mothers
and local health care operatives. I was lucky to find an LLL Group of
mothers who were united and shared ideas and values similar to my own.
However, I had very little to do with forming this wonderful Group.
The groundwork had already been done by an extraordinary woman, Nina
Zenner, who is a well-known and respected physiotherapist throughout
Italy’s professional circles. At 82 years old, she bicycles everywhere,
weather permitting. When she isn’t helping mothers and massaging
babies, she looks after her vines and olive trees.
My very first meeting as
an LLL Leader in Catania was attended by two mothers. Twelve mothers
came to the next one. Over the course of the next few months, the number
of mothers grew from 12 to 25.
In 2002, I told the Group
about the LLL Italia Conference in Rimini, a famous resort town and
venue on the Adriatic coast. Their enthusiasm was dampened by the knowledge
that the venue was logistically problematic for us "islanders."
Five mothers from my Group wanted to attend the congress and wanted
to make reservations, but it soon became clear to them that the journey
would be very tiring and costly.
This clear interest in a
wider breastfeeding experience, the possibility of meeting other mothers
and Leaders, and the opportunity to hear experts speak on subjects so
close to our hearts inspired me to think of ways I could make this possible
at a local level.
I was already in contact
with Michel Odent for other reasons, and I asked him if he would be
interested in coming to Catania to speak during our 2002 World Breastfeeding
Awareness Week Celebration (or SAM, as we call it in Italy). He was
delighted to receive my invitation and his enthusiasm gave me new drive
in preparing an event for Catania. The City of Catania offered me the
use of one of their reception rooms for the event. We prepared brochures
and posters and then waited anxiously for the dates of our Conference
to arrive. The program included a variety of presentations, such as
"Breastfeeding Begins Before Birth," with Michel Odent, "The
Advantages of Natural Birth" with Laura Belloni, "Tactile
Experience and Breastfeeding," with Simona Carfi, and "The
Broken Code," with Sergio Conti Nibali.
The small room could seat
100 people, and it was always full. Mothers and fathers came from all
over Sicily eager to learn and enthusiastic about meeting like-minded
people who were ready to spend time in the company of their children.
For some parents, it was quite a discovery that it was possible to learn,
have intelligent conversations with other adults, and devote energy
to their children at the same time.
After the Conference, when
things were calm again, many mothers phoned to thank me and to say how
very rewarding they had found the whole experience. Buoyed up by all
this enthusiasm, I started thinking about what we could do in 2003.
I still had a lot to learn about organizing seminars, however, especially
from a financial point of view. It took me a while to get back into
the black, but I managed.
For the 2003 Conference,
I made sure I wasn’t trying to do everything on my own. I learned
about budgeting and built up a small team of helpers. We put together
a program that included information on the composition of human milk,
growth curves, the newborn brain, cosleeping, and more. We also ran
a number of parallel workshops on how to carry babies, singing lullabies,
and massage. During the breaks, we had a slide show presentation of
photographs accompanied by lullabies from all over the world.
Once again, the whole experience
was so positive and rewarding. This time, the Conference room could
seat up to 200 people and was almost full for both days. Families came
from all over Sicily, and some LLL Leaders from other parts of Italy
came with their families. One Leader came all the way from France!
Even now, we still have vivid
memories of the mothers and fathers singing lullabies in the corridors
of the hotel, or walking about with their babies in various slings and
pouches, more confident than ever after attending the enriching sessions.
Page last edited Sun Oct 14 09:32:24 UTC 2007.
