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.[1]
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The founders of La Leche League were seven mothers from Illinois 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.[2]
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.[3]
At the end of World War II, most women bottle-fed their babies.[4] By the time of La Leche League's founding, the breastfeeding initiation rate in the USA had dropped to 20% of babies.[5]
The first formal La Leche League meeting was held in October, 1956.[4] 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.[6]
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).[6] 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 (pronounced leh-cheh) 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”.[6]
The misson of LLLI is "to help mothers worldwide to breastfeed 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."[7][8]
The following are statements of LLLI's philosophy:[9]
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.[10] 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.[11]
Today, LLLI has grown to help women in more than 60 countries.[8] 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.
La Leche League is often regarded as the most influential organization advocating breastfeeding.[12][13] 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.
Tanya Ruseva became the first La Leche League Leader in Bulgaria in 2005.[14] 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.[15]
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. .[16]
The first meetings of LLL of France were held in 1973. LLL of France was officially created in 1979.[17] The founding mother of LLL of France was Suzanne Colson.
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.[19]
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 (meaning breast-feeding help).[20] This started revival of breastfeeding in Norway. Today the country boasts 98-99% initiation rates of breastfeeding and 80% breastfeeding rates at 6 months.[21]
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. [22]
Nataliya Polizhak became the first La Leche Leader in Ukraine in 2006.[23][24] She was trained exclusively via Internet by Marina Kopylova.
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.[28] The book has also been reviewed as easy to read, comprehensive and reliable, though unapologetically pro-breastfeeding.[29]
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.[30] 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.[31]