Cake Sale & Raffle

2012 is proving to be a spectacular year for La Leche League in Portsmouth!   We have 3 new Leaders training currently & this morning raised over £300 to buy their specialist books & now also have enough funds to get some brilliant new books into the group library too - local mothers (& the other users & staff at Havelock Community Centre) helped to support all pregnant & breastfeeding mothers in the City today by coming out to have their cake & eat it, as well as winning such smashing raffle prizes as a Connecta sling, family day pass to Staunton Country Park, £15 voucher for Southsea Greehouse, goodies from Coco chocolatiers and much more!

We also now have 2 monthly meetings scheduled starting in April - first Friday of the month will remain at Francis Lodge, Heidelberg Road, Southsea 12-1.30pm and we are delighted that the lovely Southsea Children's Centre have agreed to host us on the third Wednesday of each month in their gorgeous creche & garden room 12-2pm.

Fridays will be aimed primarily at mothers with younger babies & pregnant women, whilst the Wednesday meets will be toddler groups aimed more at those with mobile babies & toddlers - but as always, if you want to know anything or everything about breastfeeding, you are always welcome at either meeting!

The next meeting will be at the Havelock Community Centre on Wednesday 18 April at 12pm - we can't wait & we look forward to seeing you there!


PLEASE NOTE THAT WE DO NOT UPDATE THE BLOG REGULARLY AT THE CURRENT TIME BUT YOU CAN ALWAYS CHECK PORTSMOUTH BREASTFEEDING ON FACEBOOK FOR UP TO DATE MEETING INFO

Thank you and more meeting dates

Our recent cake sale in the park raised a brilliant £65 for LLLJapan! Many thanks to all those lovely mamas who baked for the sale and of course to everyone who came along and donated so generously.  Especially popular were Sally's luscious lemon drizzle cake and Sadie's awesome organic fruit scones! I also hear that the butternut squash fairy cakes went down a storm with the kids, so whoever baked them - please let me have the recipe and I will blog it here, if that's OK.

As well as our monthly meetings at Francis Lodge, I am also planning some more meets in the park whilst the sun is shining - so see below and come along for a very informal LLL in the fresh air - especially great if you have older ones who need to run off some youthful exuberance.

The next meetings in Wimbledon Park will be on Fridays:
20 May and 17 June  from about 11.30, so bring a picnic blanket & basket and have your lunch al fresco -there are a couple of picnic benches too, and plenty of shade in the fenced play area.  As the park is public, Dads and other family members are welcome to join us too.

Looking forward to seeing you soon.

LLLove from Lucy, Bill & Joe x

Dates for LLL Portsmouth Meetings 2011

Tuesdays 12.30-2.30pm

3 May ~ 7 June ~ 5 July 

The next 3 series meetings will all be at Francis Lodge on Heidelberg Road.  Our new home has a kitchen for making drinks in the corner so you can grab a cuppa and still keep an eye on your toddlers, and has a comfy sofa for those marathon early days nursings.  As the Lodge is an out-centre for Brambles Children Centre, they kindly let us have use of their toys so there are plenty of things to entertain your babies and starting in May there will be a craft activity for toddlers & preschoolers (with a little help from Mamas) so that we can chat & keep them involved.


The meetings at the Lodge run 12.30-2.30 so feel free to bring a packed lunch.  Meetings will always be free to all - donations to the group funds are always welcome however and help keep our supply of drinks, leaflets and (free to borrow) library of breastfeeding books up to date.  Mamas attending meetings are also encouraged to bring a contribution towards healthy snacks - a banana or an apple to be cut up for our little ones all to share is more than enough - if we all bring something small, there is plenty to go around.  Mamas who enjoy baking are also wholeheartedly encouraged to share their talent with the group!!!


I look forward to seeing you! 


LLLove from Lucy x

Breastfeeding = Breastfeeding

This is a great article - I'm hoping that lots of Portsmouth & Southsea mums will stumble across it!

Stay with it to the end - she has some great points and I for one hope I can be as open as she advocates to all styles of mothering.

Breastfeeding = Breastfeeding

More meeting dates

The next meeting dates for coffee mornings/play sessions at the Salvation Army Hall will be:

Thursday 4 November

Thursday 2 December

Dates for the New Year will follow when I can bear to contemplate the end of another year! Hope to see you at a meeting soon.

Fundraising for room hire & new library books

OK, so we will have to pay for our coffee morning space in a couple of months so our group funds need some plumping up.

On Thursday 2 September at the Coffee Morning at the Salvation Army, we will be offering mothers who have regularly attended the group an opportunity to sell babies & children's clothes, toys etc, and also to sell maternity/nursing & women's wear. In return, the group will ask for a minimum donation of 10% of the money you take. You must take home with you everything that you do not sell, or it will be donated to the Salvation Army Lighthouse charity shop on Albert Road immediately following the Coffee Morning! You can invite other mothers you know to attend the Coffee Morning, but not to sell their items. If it raises some money and doesn't get too complicated, then a Pre-Loved Sale may become a regular fixture for LLL Portsmouth.

At the suggestion of a lovely group mother, I am also putting out a call for donations of nursing bras - any that are no longer used, too small or just bored with, please donate them and we will then sell them on via the group for a small donation of a £ or two. Please ask your friends if they have any old nursing bras lurking that they would like to donate too.

That's all the news for now, the post below this one should be the one will meeting dates for the rest of the year. Hope to see you soon. Enjoy the sunny summer days x

Dates for August - December 2010

We have found ourselves a new home for coffee mornings with some more space for the little people, so these will now be at the Salvation Army Hall on Albert Road (entrance through the wrought iron gates next to Ken's Kebabs).

Series meetings (where we hold an informal discussion group and our library is available) will continue in Lucy's home for now.

Coffee & Play (Salvation Army Hall):

Thursday 19 August 2010

Thursday 2 September 2010

Thursday 7 October 2010

(further dates TBC)

Series Meetings (Lucy's house):

Tuesday 14 September - Advantages of Breastfeeding

Tuesday 19 October 2010 - The Family & the Breastfed Baby

Tuesday 16 November 2010 - The Art of Breastfeeding & Avoiding Difficulties

Tuesday 14 December 2010 - Nutrition & Weaning

The titles of these meetings are a rough guide to how we will start our informal discussion. The focus of all sessions is mother-to-mother support and discussions will naturally adapt to the needs & questions of the mothers, babies & children present.

Please note that whilst our groups are completely free to attend, we will have to start paying for use of the Salvation Army Hall from October, so we are asking that whenever possible mothers make a small donation to the group. We suggest £1. These small donations mean that we can hire the hall, keep stocked with free teas & coffees and hand out free information leaflets, as well as contributing to advertising the group to local mothers and helping to purchase new books for our free lending library.