This is an item I wrote about myself way back in 2003 as part of an exercise to becoming a Le Leche League breastfeeding mentor. I never did complete the entire "course" but I stumbled across this when we repaired an old computer recently and another 'self portrait' composition (which I'll share in my next posting).
It was nice to read how I wrote about myself and it has made me think it would be nice to do another mini biography of myself now. Anyway thought I would put it here;
1. A Little Bit About Myself
Hello I am a thirty years old woman born in the island of Trinidad, which is in the West Indies. I grew up with my sister and we were both raised by our mother. This was following her separation from our father when I was nine years old.
Following my high school completion exams I came to the United Kingdom to study nursing, which I completed in 1994. Being tired of living in England I chose to return to my birth country where I worked as a registered nurse. I also continued a courtship that began while I was studying which lead to my marriage, in 1997.
Our union soon produced a beautiful and blessed baby girl in the year 1999. Her name is Nathifa and she is roughly three and half years old now. When Nathifa was approximately 18 months old I started my own at home business, which was suited to the arts and craft industry. My husband though six months later thought that it would be financially better for us to return to England for some years.
So Nathifa and I arrived in the U.K. in March 2002, and my husband joined us later that same year. I found myself back in the work force, so ending my stay at home mom status, which I was enjoying totally. My husband has now found himself in the role of main caregiver to our daughter and though we would both like to reverse our roles I believe that this would be great learning time for him as a parent.
We are not on our own here in the U.K as we reside at my mothers so that she can get the opportunity to be around her granddaughter and hopefully grandchildren (in the future). I also have two more aunts and some cousins here as well, our family is quite close and we get together quite often as work schedules allow.
My Interests & Hobbies
I along with my immediate family are vegans, my husband and I also share quite a few interests which makes life easy at times. We both are nature orientated, and enjoy hiking and outdoor activities. I on the other hand also enjoy arts and craft activities and will try my hand at almost anything in that field. While I was pregnant with Nathifa I also did a beginners course in interior design of which I like to concentrate on children’s spaces.
My other interest are more nature based, in that I try to live my life as naturally as possible, but in saying that I am certainly not fanatical about it. This interest leads me down the road of herbal therapies, inclusive of aromatherapy and other alternative medicines. I am also a great advocate for self-reliance living and look forward to the day that my husband and our family start living off the land back in our home country.
Which leads me to my other great interest that is gardening, and as my husband and myself have moved into a new home with my mom here in Kent we have inherited a 100+ foot long garden that I have loads of plans for.
Outside of my the other general interest that are reading, listening to music, yoga, dance and surfing the net, my next big interests that has dominated my thoughts these last few years are parenting styles mainly attachment parenting, giving birth and being pregnant freely and naturally, and of course last but in no way least the topic of breastfeeding.
2. Why a LLL Leader?
I have always been a bit of a planner (ok a bit is to mild a word to describe my fascination with planning), but was still grounded enough to know that no plan is truly foolproof and to always allow for the inevitable. This train of thought leads me to full fill self-knowledge on a somewhat ‘’total’’ scale when I’m about to start a new endeavour or life journey, such as in pregnancy and child rearing.
At least a year before I got pregnant knowing that Anthony and I were looking to get started I gathered books and information around me to help increase my knowledge base on natural pregnancy, birth and breastfeeding. Following Nathifa’s birth we acquired a computer and finally joined the web based community, with all the new information at my fingertips I delved deeper into the world of parenting and breastfeeding. Both topics I was already comfortable with had now become quite important to my person. The more I researched either topic and related articles the stronger my belief in their merits and benefits became.
With this drive for self-knowledge I become quite an advocate for natural birthing, and attachment parenting, and would at times become quite baffled on how other older/ young women like myself could pass through life not questioning how things had become. I also could not understand why they did not also have a drive of some sort to acquire information concerning there own lifestyle choices so that they would be better able to make informed decisions.
Due to my family’s migration to the U.K, I lost my initial peer support that I could lean on during the rough times of parenting, etc. And though I had my family’s love the support for my parenting style was not always respected or agreed with. I felt alone and isolated at times and began searching out support groups that had other moms or parents that were in agreement with my parenting style.
I did most of my searching on line and soon remembered the LLL site. While I gathered the necessary information on group meetings in my neck the woods, I also looked to see if there was a group in the West Indies or in Trinidad, of which there was none.
This led me to immediately wanting to start a group in my home country. The need for it is great, for although we are seen as a developing country, we have left a lot of the old sensible ways for the more modern and westernised ways of child rearing and this has led to less and less numbers in breastfeeding as well as the duration a baby is breastfed. The government is trying to turn the numbers around but lack of finances and manpower makes the struggle a particularly hard one.
I know that my natural desire to spread the word and advantages of breastfeeding and all that it entails would be an asset to my fellow sisters in my beautiful island. And I believe at some point I would have become a breastfeeding consultant, but LLL also embraces the same ideals that I do in relation to mothering and parenting the child, which makes it a natural fit. And this is why I want to become a Le Leche League Leader.
Sincerely Yours,
Kella ...
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