The scheduled breastfeeding chats at Parents Place were so helpful to me when I first started nursing Justin that I eventually became a co-host. Many of the moms who entered the chats were regulars, and they varied from first time nursing moms to "veterans" nursing toddlers. The newer participants were greeted with a large range of experiences and advice.
When I went back to the Parents Place chat last week, I found that the forums had changed in form (i chat and java are now used along with the HTML chat), but not in spirit. Trish Riley, mommy of a newborn baby girl, came to the room with some very common questions. The group was small that morning, but she was still greeted with congratulations and encouraging comments. Now she says she would like to participate as often as possible.
"[I would like to participate] at least once a week, just to keep in touch with others so I won't feel so alone!" she says.
Sherrie Soleim says she feels chatting with women from all over the world makes her feel like the advice and support is well-rounded.
"I have met so many people from totally different backgrounds whose opinions on a topic will be just as different. It is very helpful in my problem solving to hear from these other cultures," she says. "It sometimes helps bring a problem into perspective."
The benefits from chatting with women from other parts of the world also seem to help moms open up more to each other. Sometimes it can be difficult to express concerns with a small gathering of nursing moms from your own community, especially for the first time mother. Here is how Tammy Russell sees it:
"As humans, we tend to befriend and surround ourselves with people who we have a lot in common with - people a lot like us. To a certain degree, and I don't mean to sound discriminating, we are naturally attracted to people who look like us, have similar economic status, educational background, and cultural upbringing," she says. "Online, these aspects of a person are virtually unknown. And what we gain from interacting without barriers is phenomenal! It opens you up. It's fantastic!"
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