La Leche League International
Encyclopedia
La Leche League International (LLLI) (La Leche is Spanish
for "the milk") is an international nonprofit organization that distributes information on and promotes breastfeeding
. It was founded in 1956 in Franklin Park
, Illinois
as "La Leche League" and has a presence in sixty-eight countries.
who had breastfed their own children and were motivated to help mothers who, for a variety of different reasons (often related to social expectations
and misinformation
) had difficulties with and questions about breastfeeding
. Marian Tompson
and her friend Mary White began with a conversation about the joys and difficulties of breastfeeding while at a local church picnic in August 1956. They each invited other friends to join the discussion; Mary Ann Cahill, Edwina Froehlich, Mary Ann Kerwin, Viola Lennon, and Betty Wagner
. These women are considered the founders of La Leche League.
Drs. Herbert Ratner and Gregory White were invited to meet with them and advised the group about medical aspects of breastfeeding, providing access to the small amount of medical literature about breastfeeding then available.
At the end of World War II, most women bottle-fed their babies. By the time of La Leche League's founding, the breastfeeding initiation rate in the USA had dropped to 20% of babies.
The first formal La Leche League meeting was held in October, 1956. The seven Leaders originally held meetings in private homes; more recently, hospitals, parenting centres, and other public venues have provided meeting spaces.
In 1957, Dr. Grantly Dick-Read, considered the father of the natural childbirth movement, also came to speak with them.
The first La Leche League Group outside of the United States formed in 1960 in Jonquiere, Quebec
, Canada. The La Leche League became La Leche League International, Inc. (LLLI) in 1964 with groups in Canada, Mexico and New Zealand. In 1964 the first international conference was held in Chicago with 425 adults and 100 babies in attendance.
In 1981 LLLI was granted consultative status with the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF). In 1985 LLLI served on the International Board of Lactation Consultant
Examiners, established to develop and administer a voluntary certification program for lactation consultants. The first IBLCE exam was administered in July 1985.
Early in the organization's history, local newspapers rejected meeting notices that used the words breastfed and breastfeeding, calling them inappropriate for family publications. The name comes from the Spanish word, leche meaning milk. It was inspired by a shrine in St. Augustine, Florida, dedicated to “Nuestra Señora de la Leche y Buen Parto”, meaning “Our Lady of Happy Delivery and Plentiful Milk”.
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
."
The following are statements of LLLI's philosophy
:
LLLI leaders are accredited volunteers who have breastfed their own babies and have been specially trained to help mothers with breastfeeding. They facilitate meetings in the morning, afternoon, or evening once a month. Some Leaders develop expertise with particular breastfeeding situations such as breastfeeding an adopted child, special medical or physical situations of the mother or baby, family challenges such as divorce, and many others. In order to be most effective, Leaders keep up-to-date through continued training and study of the most current medical research on breastfeeding.
Most meetings are designed for pregnant and breastfeeding women to provide breastfeeding information, support, and encouragement. In some areas there are specialized meetings for couples, working mothers, teen mothers, or mothers of multiples (twins, triplets or more). Online meetings are available through the LLLI website. While the Leader represents LLLI at Series Meetings, mothers are encouraged to share their own experiences with other mothers. A common theme repeated by Leaders at a LLLI meeting is "take what you need and leave the rest", acknowledging that every mother-baby dyad is unique and each mother knows her own baby best. All meetings are free of charge. A one year membership to LLLI can be purchased for $40.00.
In some places, there is a centralized phone number (for an entire country or a US state, for example) where mothers can either receive help directly or be referred to a Leader in her area. In other areas, these Leaders directly advertise their telephone numbers, and sometimes email, via the LLLI website, telephone books and posters in parenting centres, libraries, doctors' and midwives' offices, health centres and other places where pregnant women and new parents might seek information. Mothers may also submit questions or concerns through online Help Forms available on the LLLI website.
Today, LLLI has grown to help women in more than 60 countries.
It publishes a bimonthly breastfeeding and parenting journal, New Beginnings, sent to those who become LLLI members. Anyone may become a LLLI member for an annual fee. LLLI also publishes and sells a variety of books and media for mothers, families, and medical professionals.
The most recent LLLI International Conference was in July 2007 in Chicago, Illinois, and included a seminar for health care professionals. In addition, there are Area parenting and breastfeeding conferences held in many parts of the world every year. Some Areas also offer continuing education seminars for health care professionals as well as ongoing training for Leaders.
breast-feeding help). This started revival of breastfeeding in Norway. Today the country boasts 98-99% initiation rates of breastfeeding and 80% breastfeeding rates at 6 months.
One study of LLLI's philosophies and practices suggested a series of paradoxes: while promoting a sense of maternal competence, resistance to authority and the reclamation of their bodies, LLLI also promotes a conception of what it is to be a "good mother" that is biologically deterministic
and socially prescribed. In an article that focuses on similar themes, Hanna Rosin notes that while La Leche League originally developed in part in reaction against the notion of the medical mother measuring out doctor's office chemicals for her baby, the contemporary LLLI uses a continual diatribe of medical testimony to push women toward their definition of "good motherhood." She suggests that LLLI and other pro-breastfeeding individuals/organizations paint mothers who do not breastfeed as cold and/or unresponsive to their children's needs. She cites studies that, she argues, suggest that breastfeeding, while nutritionally useful to children, is not so essential to children's well-being that it makes sense to demonize mothers who do not or cannot breastfeed.
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
for "the milk") is an international nonprofit organization that distributes information on and promotes breastfeeding
Breastfeeding
Breastfeeding is the feeding of an infant or young child with breast milk directly from female human breasts rather than from a baby bottle or other container. Babies have a sucking reflex that enables them to suck and swallow milk. It is recommended that mothers breastfeed for six months or...
. It was founded in 1956 in Franklin Park
Franklin Park, Illinois
Franklin Park is a village in Cook County, Illinois, United States. The population was 19,800 at the 2004 census.-Geography:Franklin Park is located at ....
, Illinois
Illinois
Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...
as "La Leche League" and has a presence in sixty-eight countries.
History
The founders of La Leche League were seven mothers from IllinoisIllinois
Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...
who had breastfed their own children and were motivated to help mothers who, for a variety of different reasons (often related to social expectations
Role theory
Role theory is a perspective in sociology and in social psychology that considers most of everyday activity to be the acting out of socially defined categories . Each social role is a set of rights, duties, expectations, norms and behaviour a person has to face and to fulfill...
and misinformation
Misinformation
Misinformation is false or inaccurate information that is spread unintentionally. It is distinguished from disinformation by motive in that misinformation is simply erroneous, while disinformation, in contrast, is intended to mislead....
) had difficulties with and questions about breastfeeding
Breastfeeding
Breastfeeding is the feeding of an infant or young child with breast milk directly from female human breasts rather than from a baby bottle or other container. Babies have a sucking reflex that enables them to suck and swallow milk. It is recommended that mothers breastfeed for six months or...
. Marian Tompson
Marian Tompson
Marian Leonard Tompson is one of the seven founders of La Leche League International. She was President of La Leche League for 24 years, from 1956 to 1980, and a member of the Founders Advisory Council. Wife of the late Clement Tompson, she is the mother of seven children, a grandmother and...
and her friend Mary White began with a conversation about the joys and difficulties of breastfeeding while at a local church picnic in August 1956. They each invited other friends to join the discussion; Mary Ann Cahill, Edwina Froehlich, Mary Ann Kerwin, Viola Lennon, and Betty Wagner
Betty Wagner Spandikow
Betty Redmond Wagner Spandikow was a founder of the . She was a co-author of The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding, which has been translated into eight languages and Braille....
. These women are considered the founders of La Leche League.
Drs. Herbert Ratner and Gregory White were invited to meet with them and advised the group about medical aspects of breastfeeding, providing access to the small amount of medical literature about breastfeeding then available.
At the end of World War II, most women bottle-fed their babies. By the time of La Leche League's founding, the breastfeeding initiation rate in the USA had dropped to 20% of babies.
The first formal La Leche League meeting was held in October, 1956. The seven Leaders originally held meetings in private homes; more recently, hospitals, parenting centres, and other public venues have provided meeting spaces.
In 1957, Dr. Grantly Dick-Read, considered the father of the natural childbirth movement, also came to speak with them.
The first La Leche League Group outside of the United States formed in 1960 in Jonquiere, Quebec
Jonquière, Quebec
Jonquière was a city on the Saguenay River in the Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean region of Quebec, Canada, near Chicoutimi. In 2002, Jonquière became an arrondissement, or borough, of the merged city of Saguenay....
, Canada. The La Leche League became La Leche League International, Inc. (LLLI) in 1964 with groups in Canada, Mexico and New Zealand. In 1964 the first international conference was held in Chicago with 425 adults and 100 babies in attendance.
In 1981 LLLI was granted consultative status with the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF). In 1985 LLLI served on the International Board of Lactation Consultant
Lactation consultant
A lactation consultant is a healthcare provider recognized as an expert in the fields of human lactation and breastfeeding. The USLCA, United States Lactation Consultant Association, is the presiding organization in the United States of America and the International Lactation Consultant...
Examiners, established to develop and administer a voluntary certification program for lactation consultants. The first IBLCE exam was administered in July 1985.
Early in the organization's history, local newspapers rejected meeting notices that used the words breastfed and breastfeeding, calling them inappropriate for family publications. The name comes from the Spanish word, leche meaning milk. It was inspired by a shrine in St. Augustine, Florida, dedicated to “Nuestra Señora de la Leche y Buen Parto”, meaning “Our Lady of Happy Delivery and Plentiful Milk”.
Philosophy and mission
The misson of LLLI is "to help mothers worldwide to breastfeedBreastfeeding
Breastfeeding is the feeding of an infant or young child with breast milk directly from female human breasts rather than from a baby bottle or other container. Babies have a sucking reflex that enables them to suck and swallow milk. It is recommended that mothers breastfeed for six months or...
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
Mother
A mother, mum, mom, momma, or mama is a woman who has raised a child, given birth to a child, and/or supplied the ovum that grew into a child. Because of the complexity and differences of a mother's social, cultural, and religious definitions and roles, it is challenging to specify a universally...
."
The following are statements of LLLI's philosophy
Philosophy
Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...
:
- Mothering through breastfeeding is the most natural and effective way of understanding and satisfying the needs of the babyInfantA newborn or baby is the very young offspring of a human or other mammal. A newborn is an infant who is within hours, days, or up to a few weeks from birth. In medical contexts, newborn or neonate refers to an infant in the first 28 days after birth...
. - Mother and baby need to be together early and often to establish a satisfying relationshipHuman bondingHuman bonding is the process of development of a close, interpersonal relationship. It most commonly takes place between family members or friends, but can also develop among groups such as sporting teams and whenever people spend time together...
and an adequate milk supply. - In the early years the baby has an intense need to be with his mother which is as basic as his need for food.
- Breast milkBreast milkBreast milk, more specifically human milk, is the milk produced by the breasts of a human female for her infant offspring...
is the superior infant food. - For the healthy, full-term baby, breast milk is the only food necessary until the baby shows signs of needing solidsBaby foodBaby food is any food, other than breastmilk or infant formula, that is made specifically for infants, roughly between the ages of four to six months to 2 years. The food comes in multiple varieties and tastes, can be produced by many manufacturers, or may be table food that the rest of the family...
, about the middle of the first year after birth. - Ideally the breastfeeding relationship will continue until the baby outgrows the need.
- Alert and active participation by the mother in childbirthChildbirthChildbirth is the culmination of a human pregnancy or gestation period with the birth of one or more newborn infants from a woman's uterus...
is a help in getting breastfeeding off to a good start. - Breastfeeding is enhanced and the nursing couple sustained by the loving support, help, and companionship of the baby's fatherFatherA father, Pop, Dad, or Papa, is defined as a male parent of any type of offspring. The adjective "paternal" refers to father, parallel to "maternal" for mother...
. A father's unique relationship with his baby is an important element in the child's development from early infancy. - Good nutritionNutritionNutrition is the provision, to cells and organisms, of the materials necessary to support life. Many common health problems can be prevented or alleviated with a healthy diet....
means eating a well-balanced and varied diet of foods in as close to their natural state as possible. - From infancy on, children need loving guidance which reflects acceptance of their capabilities and sensitivity to their feelings.
Services
The primary purpose of LLLI is to encourage, inform, and support mothers primarily via monthly Series Meetings, telephone help, and online through email and the LLLI website. Some Leaders also do home and/or hospital visits.LLLI leaders are accredited volunteers who have breastfed their own babies and have been specially trained to help mothers with breastfeeding. They facilitate meetings in the morning, afternoon, or evening once a month. Some Leaders develop expertise with particular breastfeeding situations such as breastfeeding an adopted child, special medical or physical situations of the mother or baby, family challenges such as divorce, and many others. In order to be most effective, Leaders keep up-to-date through continued training and study of the most current medical research on breastfeeding.
Most meetings are designed for pregnant and breastfeeding women to provide breastfeeding information, support, and encouragement. In some areas there are specialized meetings for couples, working mothers, teen mothers, or mothers of multiples (twins, triplets or more). Online meetings are available through the LLLI website. While the Leader represents LLLI at Series Meetings, mothers are encouraged to share their own experiences with other mothers. A common theme repeated by Leaders at a LLLI meeting is "take what you need and leave the rest", acknowledging that every mother-baby dyad is unique and each mother knows her own baby best. All meetings are free of charge. A one year membership to LLLI can be purchased for $40.00.
In some places, there is a centralized phone number (for an entire country or a US state, for example) where mothers can either receive help directly or be referred to a Leader in her area. In other areas, these Leaders directly advertise their telephone numbers, and sometimes email, via the LLLI website, telephone books and posters in parenting centres, libraries, doctors' and midwives' offices, health centres and other places where pregnant women and new parents might seek information. Mothers may also submit questions or concerns through online Help Forms available on the LLLI website.
Today, LLLI has grown to help women in more than 60 countries.
It publishes a bimonthly breastfeeding and parenting journal, New Beginnings, sent to those who become LLLI members. Anyone may become a LLLI member for an annual fee. LLLI also publishes and sells a variety of books and media for mothers, families, and medical professionals.
The most recent LLLI International Conference was in July 2007 in Chicago, Illinois, and included a seminar for health care professionals. In addition, there are Area parenting and breastfeeding conferences held in many parts of the world every year. Some Areas also offer continuing education seminars for health care professionals as well as ongoing training for Leaders.
Influence
La Leche League is often regarded as the most influential organization advocating breastfeeding. The leading voices in breastfeeding and lactation fields come from La Leche League. Many current and former LLL Leaders are prominent in other areas of work improving lives of families, women and children.Bulgaria
Tanya Ruseva became the first La Leche League Leader in Bulgaria in 2005. This is the official birth year of La Leche League Bulgaria. A lot of the first meetings were held online, but in 2006 the first "live" meeting took place. As of 2011 La Leche League of Bulgaria established the first in the country website for mothers dedicated solely to breastfeeding. They published the first and only breastfeeding magazine for both parents and healthcare workers. They are the sole providers of breastfeeding webinars and organized the first international breastfeeding conference in Bulgaria.Dominican Republic
Liga de La Leche, Dominican Republic was born in 1990. The founding mothers of LLL in the country were Priscilla Stothers, a nurse and health educator from Florida, USA, and Yanet Olivares, who was accredited as a LLL Leader in Puerto Rico before she returned to her own country, the Dominican Republic. The PR group Leader, Gretchen Rivera de Cummings, invited her to become a LLL Leader. Gretchen was often contacted by the mothers from the DR because her group was geographically the closest group and the LLLI office always provided her contact information. .France
The first meetings of LLL of France were held in 1973. LLL of France was officially created in 1979. The founding mother of LLL of France was Suzanne Colson.- Suzanne Colson, PhD, a midwife, is widely know for her research of neonatal reflexes in connection to breastfeeding.
Germany
The first meetings of La Leche League in Germany were held at American military bases in 1970s. The first German Leaders were Edda Longman and Hannah Lothrop. April 30, 1977 is the official birthday of La Leche Liga Deutschland.Norway
Eli Heiberg Endresen and Elisabet Helsing compiled the first edition of How to breast-feed your child which was published in 1967 based on material from La Leche League and personal experience. In 1968 Helsing started a mother-to-mother breastfeeding support organization called Ammehjelpen (meaningbreast-feeding help). This started revival of breastfeeding in Norway. Today the country boasts 98-99% initiation rates of breastfeeding and 80% breastfeeding rates at 6 months.
Russia
La Leche League Leader Natalia Gerbeda-Wilson of Ukraine and a Leader Applicant Marina Kopylova of Russia started a Yahoo-mailing list Kormlenie (Russian for breastfeeding)in 2003 to unite mothers who were helping other mothers breastfeed in an attempt to stop high turnover of breastfeeding consultants in the countries of the former USSR. The organization of natural feeding consultants called AKEV (Association of Natural Feeding Constulants, Russian for Ассоциация консультантов по естественному вскармливанию) was born on the mailing list in 2004.Ukraine
Nataliya Polizhak became the first La Leche Leader in Ukraine in 2006. She was trained exclusively via Internet by Marina Kopylova.United States
- Barbara Heiser, a LLL Leader, co-founded the National Allisance of Breastfeeding Advocacy (NABA).
- Kay Hoover and Barbara Wilson-Clay, LLL Leaders and IBCLCs, wrote The Breastfeeding Atlas, a comprehensive visual guide for lactation specialists.
- Nancy Mohrbaher ~ a La Leche League Leader, IBCLC, FILCA. A co-author with Julie Stock of Breastfeeding Answer Book, one of the first most definitive references for breastfeeding counselors. The book was first published in 1991, then revised in 1996 and 2003. Mohrbacher later wrote Breastfeeding Answers Made Simple: A Guide for Helping Mothers (with Kathleen Kendall-Tackett) and Breastfeeding Made Simple: Seven Natural Laws for Nursing Mothers.
- Audrey Naylor, MD and a member of the LLLI Professional Advisory Board relied on the organization's resources in training health care workers around the world through Wellstart International, the nonprofit educational organization she founded in 1983.
- Peggy O'Mara, a LLL Leader, is famous as a publisher, editor and owner of Mothering magazine. She is the author of several books: Having a Baby Naturally: The Mothering Magazine Guide to Pregnancy and Childbirth; Natural Family Living: The Mothering Magazine Guide to Parenting; The Way Back Home: Essays on Life and Family; A Quiet Place: Essays on Life and Family
- Barbara Popper, a LLL Leader, founded Children In Hospitals (CIH), a non-profit, volunteer educational and advocacy organization. CIH conducted a survey of visitation policies at other hospitals, and used the information to advocate for 24-hour family visitation policies at Massachusetts hospitals. Families have Barbara to thank for being able to room in with their hospitalized children.
- Jan Riordan ~ a La Leche League Leader, RN, EdD, IBCLC, co-authored Breastfeeding and Human Lactation, one of the main texts on breastfeeding education, with Katherine G. Auerbach, PhD, LLL Leader, in 1993 and 1996, and with Karen Wambach in 2009.
- Nancy Wainer Cohen, a LLL Leader, coined the term VBAC ( vaginal birth after cesarean) and has written two books on cesarean prevention. "Silent Knife" (with Lois J. Estner) won an award for The Best Book in the Field of Health and Medicine by the American Library Association the year it was written. She co cofounded the first cesarean prevention organization in the world and her work is being archived at the Schlesinger Women's History Library at Harvard University.
- Marian TompsonMarian TompsonMarian Leonard Tompson is one of the seven founders of La Leche League International. She was President of La Leche League for 24 years, from 1956 to 1980, and a member of the Founders Advisory Council. Wife of the late Clement Tompson, she is the mother of seven children, a grandmother and...
, a co-founder of LLL, founded AnotherLook, an organization advocating research of breastfeeding in the context of HIV. - Diana WestDiana WestDiana West is a nationally syndicated conservative American columnist and author. Her weekly column for the Washington Examiner is syndicated by the Newspaper Enterprise Association and appears in about 120 newspapers. She is the author of the book The Death of the Grown Up: How America's Arrested...
, LLL Leader, IBCLC wrote Defining Your Own Success : Breastfeeding after Breast Reduction Surgery and The Breastfeeding Mother's Guide to Making More Milk (with Lisa Marasco, LLL Leader, IBCLC, FILCA). - In 1979 Chele Marmet and Ellen Shell, both LLL Leaders in California, opened the Lactation Institute, the first program in the US providing education specifically for lactation consultants. The program became a model for the emerging lactation consultant profession.
- In 1982 LLLI established a Lactation Consultant Department under the leadership of LLL Leader JoAnne Scott, assisted by Linda Smith, Judy Good, Chele Marmet and other LLL Leaders. In 1985 LLLI loaned $40,000 to found an independent International Board of Lactation Consultant Examiners. JoAnne Scott, Linda Smith, Chele Marmet, Judy Good, Jan Riordan and others jointly designed a certification program that established worldwide lactation consultant competency standard.
- In 1987 LLLI together with Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) agency, the Chicago Board of Health kicked off the first official Peer Counselor Training Program, reaching out to women of various races and socio-economic groups that LLL did not reach through its help.
- In 1996 La Leche League became one of the three partners in LINKAGES, a worldwide government project to promote breastfeeding, appropriate complementary feeding, and maternal dietary practices in six developing countries.
Criticism
The Weston A. Price Foundation has criticized "The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding", published by LLLI, as providing nutritional advice that may undermine some of the benefits of breastfeeding. The book has also been reviewed as easy to read, comprehensive and reliable, though unapologetically pro-breastfeeding.One study of LLLI's philosophies and practices suggested a series of paradoxes: while promoting a sense of maternal competence, resistance to authority and the reclamation of their bodies, LLLI also promotes a conception of what it is to be a "good mother" that is biologically deterministic
Biological determinism
Biological determination is the interpretation of humans and human life from a strictly biological point of view, and it is closely related to genetic determinism...
and socially prescribed. In an article that focuses on similar themes, Hanna Rosin notes that while La Leche League originally developed in part in reaction against the notion of the medical mother measuring out doctor's office chemicals for her baby, the contemporary LLLI uses a continual diatribe of medical testimony to push women toward their definition of "good motherhood." She suggests that LLLI and other pro-breastfeeding individuals/organizations paint mothers who do not breastfeed as cold and/or unresponsive to their children's needs. She cites studies that, she argues, suggest that breastfeeding, while nutritionally useful to children, is not so essential to children's well-being that it makes sense to demonize mothers who do not or cannot breastfeed.
See also
- Attachment parentingAttachment parentingAttachment parenting, a phrase coined by pediatrician William Sears, is a parenting philosophy based on the principles of the attachment theory in developmental psychology. According to attachment theory, the child forms a strong emotional bond with caregivers during childhood with lifelong...
- List of breastfeeding activists
- Breastfeeding in publicBreastfeeding in publicBreastfeeding in public deals with the social attitudes to nursing mothers breastfeeding their babies in a public or semi-public place and to laws which either deprive them of the right or which recognize their choice to do so....