Inland Empire Nesties
Dear Community,
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Robyn
I laughed when I saw your post about running for the hills. I can relate. 
I had a pretty awful exchange with one of the Riverside LLL leaders soon after Charlie was born, and I was convinced the organization was awful. But I went to the meeting tonight (in Corona), and I thought it was awesome. Just lots of women supporting each other in BF and natural birth and stuff like that. I met quite a few women who were exactly on the same page as me RE: birth, so that was nice. I'm not sure if I'll ever work up the courage to go to the Riverside meeting, though. 
How has BF been for you? Have you had any issues? Charlie and I had tons upon tons of issues, and I made a lot of mistakes with him. Hoping it works out better this time!
Re: Robyn
That's great to hear you enjoyed it!
I was extremely lucky and didn't have any issues BF. But I believe a lot of that was due to having her naturally. She was so alert when she was born and we did the immediate skin to skin contact (her all gooey still) and I immediately BF. I read the LLL book prior and had a great LC at the hospital who helped me with positioning and her latch.
I asked about it because I want to meet more moms that are for natural births. I actually don't know many at all. Me being a planner I am already thinking ahead towards what we are going to do the next time. I need to switch dr's as mine wasn't supportive of going naturally and actually lied to us. We might even go for a home birth, which I would then need recs for a midwife.
And then I am also considering becoming a Bradley Instructor and you are required to go to a LLL meeting for your ceritifcation.
It's great you guys had no BF issues. I too am convinced that babies just do better with it when they're born without drugs and are able to be with their mothers immediately. My MIL had three C-sections and BF all her kids, so I know it can be done - it's just easier with a natural, vaginal birth.
If you want to meet more like-minded moms, then I'd say attending a meeting is definitely a good idea. I've had the opportunity to become more acquainted with natural birth people through the birth center. The majority of my friends, though, aren't natural birth junkies like me. (And that's okay. They are supportive and that's what matters.)
It's good that you're thinking about next time. I started "planning" several months after Charlie was born, so even though this baby was unexpected, I had a very good idea of what I wanted and had already read and researched, toured the birth center, met my midwife, joined ICAN, etc. I am not sure if I will ever use an OB again, even for regular checkups. I just don't look at them in the same light as I used to. I know there are good ones out there, but it's hard to trust the medical establishment now.
I think home birth is an awesome idea, and that is something I'd love to do myself if this birth goes the way I want it to. My midwife does handle home births, so that's an option.
Aaaaaand I've thought of becoming a Bradley instructor too. We've all but completely dropped the Hypnobabies. Bradley just makes more sense to me and feels more intuitive. I guess I'll see how this birth goes before making a decision about becoming a Bradley instructor. It does feel like something I could do to change the current attitudes toward birth. Even change on a small scale would be nice. I'd also like to become more involved with ICAN, perhaps even start another IE chapter so I could connect with more cesarean/VBAC moms.
Also, this is a great article on the subject of birth and BF.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/melissa-bartick/ipeaceful-revolutioni-mot_b_536659.html