An Online LLL Meeting via Facebook - La Leche League International

Efrat Burman, West Sussex, United Kingdom

Efrat Burman describes how an impromptu online Series Meeting turned into quite a success.

In the modern age of social media, Series Meetings can happen online as well as in person. Some Leaders choose to supplement Series Meetings with online meetings, particularly if they cover a large area and want to reach mothers who live in remote areas. Others might offer evening meetings online where there is a demand, but where it is physically difficult for a Leader with family obligations to be away from home in an evening. Another possibility is that lone Leaders might choose to run an online meeting with other Leaders who live too far for travel.

Earlier this year, I chose to run an online meeting because I had to cancel my Series Meeting at the last minute when I lost my voice due to a bad cold. I knew that some of the mothers who planned to come were facing challenges and needed breastfeeding support so I decided to offer an online meeting as a replacement.

After a chat with another Leader who had previous experience with this type of meeting, I opened a new closed Facebook group named LLL West Sussex Online Meeting.

I prepared some guidelines for the meeting in an initial post which I “pinned” to the top of the wall to serve as a meeting notice. These were taken from the LLL Great Britain Social Media Guidelines (see below). They explain what La Leche League is, who the LLL Leaders are and provide some local LLL information about our other meetings and the ways we offer support. It is important to point out that Facebook is not secure and even in a closed group mothers may not want to post anything too sensitive. At the top of the post I asked each mother to comment with “agree” in the comment field below.

I shared the link to my online meeting in our normal LLL Facebook group. Mothers interested in joining could ask to join at any time; I informed them that I would approve all requests about ten minutes before the meeting started.

Two minutes before the meeting started I published an introductory post, asking mothers to tell us about themselves, their children and what brought them to the meeting—just as we do at a regular Series Meeting. It is also a good idea to tell mothers that they can send you a personal message or email with any questions they want published anonymously. Under that I commented with a short few lines about myself together with a photograph of me and my daughter.

As mothers commented and introduced themselves, I responded; and, if they mentioned something they wanted to discuss further I let them know I would post that in a new thread. Starting a new thread for each topic ensures everyone can see it rather than complicating the introduction thread. As an example, a new thread might say, “Lucy is dealing with mastitis. Her daughter is six-months-old and the mastitis started very suddenly. Has anyone else experienced this?” You can then give mothers a chance to comment on this before you jump in with more questions, support and suggestions, just as Leaders always do at a normal in-person meeting.

Every now and again, I posted a new question or a discussion topic. I kept these posts numbered so mothers could clearly see that these were not other mothers’ questions.

At the end of the two-hour long meeting, I posted a closing remark thanking everyone and letting them know how they could contact me or my co-Leaders. I also mentioned the date of the next local Series Meeting.

After a day or two I deleted all the posts from that Facebook group to keep the confidences of the mothers who took part in case we might want to use this group again.

If you lead an online meeting on your own and you have a large group of mothers, you might decide to limit the numbers in the online meeting to one which you are comfortable with. I had the support of one of my co-Leaders for part of the online meeting and found this very helpful but you can definitely do this on your own.

I really enjoyed holding my first online meeting! I just started working full-time and have had to cancel my weekday meetings in favour of Saturday mornings. To support mothers around my other commitments, I think a monthly evening meeting online on a weekday will work well for me.

If you want to ask any questions about this please feel free to contact me at efrat@laleche.org.uk. I think that any LLL Leader who feels fairly confident on Facebook can do this. Give it a try!!

Pinned Notice

Welcome to La Leche League (Your Group’s Name) Online Meetings Group! Please read these guidelines and comment below to say you are in agreement with them to avoid any confusion later.

La Leche League’s mission is to help mothers worldwide to breastfeed through mother-to-mother support, encouragement, information and education, and to promote a better understanding of breastfeeding as an important element in the healthy development of the baby and mother. La Leche League is a worldwide, educational, nonsectarian, non-discriminatory service organization.

LLL has been around for more than 60 years, helping mothers to breastfeed their children through mother-to-mother support led by accredited LLL Leaders. This is the purpose of all our work, including this Facebook group.

We offer support and information in (Your Town) through:

Series Meetings in (list locations), where you can receive help and reassurance from an LLL Leader and meet other breastfeeding mothers in the local area.
Private Facebook group for online support
Telephone and email help from one of the local, accredited LLL Leaders.
A small lending library with books on breastfeeding and related subjects.

Meetings

Follow the public page for information on meetings and LLL events (insert link to your Facebook group) or see our website at (insert website link).

Please note

This group is for online meetings and is not checked by LLL Leaders every day.

For over the phone breastfeeding help please call your local Leader (insert telephone number) or the Helpline (insert your country’s helpline number) or complete a Help Form at (insert link).
If you have urgent concerns about your baby, please contact your doctor, midwife or health visitor.

Please read the ground rules below before posting.

Ground rules

We ask that members take part in our LLL Facebook dialogue in an accepting and supportive way, expecting to be similarly accepted and supported.
There is no one right way to practise mothering through breastfeeding. Members are free to contribute their own thoughts, experiences, feelings, beliefs, and opinions if and when they want to. This is a place to exchange support, encouragement and information, but not advice.
You may hear things which surprise or even shock you, or with which you disagree—we ask that you please take what feels comfortable to you and respect others’ differences.
Confidentiality applies during online meetings just as in regular Series meetings so please do not re-post or take screenshots of conversations. Note that Facebook is not completely private or secure even in a closed group.
Our focus on Facebook, just as at our meetings, is always mothering through breastfeeding. Please do not use this as a forum to promote or discuss other causes no matter how worthy. Please do not use this as a place to sell things. Any such posts will not be approved by the moderators and will take our time away from supporting mothers who need it.
LLL Leaders are accredited by La Leche League International to work as both breastfeeding counsellors and breastfeeding Group facilitators. Only the Leaders, as official representatives of LLL, speak for LLL and they are guided by the organisation’s philosophy https://llli.org/about/philosophy/
Health and allied professionals are welcome to be in this group as mothers, or to observe in order to learn. Please leave your “work hat” aside when you post. Offering your services, paid or otherwise, publicly or via personal message is not acceptable and may lead to removal from the group.
If any member is concerned about a post or private message they have received, please alert an admin/Leader for assistance.

The Leaders for LLL Group are (insert names), however other Leaders may also help in this group and will identify themselves with “(LLL Leader)” after their posts.

Membership

Our LLL Facebook group is open to any woman interested in breastfeeding. It is not necessary to become an LLL member to use this page or to attend our meetings. However, we would be delighted to have you become a subscribing member, helping support the work of LLL, the functioning of our Group and our volunteer Leaders’ ongoing training. Membership of LLL is (insert details). You can join online here (insert link) or in person at our meetings.

Remember!

Focus on mothering through breastfeeding; use only what seems right for you and your family; and please be respectful to other members on this page. Advertisements will be removed.

You can contact your local LLL Leaders (insert details) if you have a breastfeeding question outside of online meeting times or would prefer your question or comment to be shared by a Leader as anonymous.

Efrat Burman, West Sussex, United Kingdom

Pinned Notice

Further reading