Breastfeeding's biggest support/supporter is turning 50!! What better time to go check out a Le Leche League meeting, no matter how old or how young your breastfeeder is, or whether you're having problems or not!

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La Leche League turns 50 :: Pioneer Press :: PIONEER PRESS ::

La Leche League turns 50


December 27, 2007
By KATHRYN GRIM Contributor
Few women can claim the distinction of having been both picketed and revered by feminist organizations.
But Marian Tompson, one of the seven founders of the breastfeeding advocacy group La Leche League, has often found herself the subject of such scrutiny. (cont'd below)


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Kree Max learns how to cradle hold a newborn with a 12-pound weighted baby at a La Leche meeting at the Skokie Valley Baptist Church in Wilmette. The organization's monthly meeting provides information about breast feeding to new mothers.
(Allison Williams/Staff Photographer)

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Tompson, who lives in Evanston, said she didn't plan to become a controversial figure.
"I thought I was getting married, having a child and staying home," she said.
But Tompson's idea in 1956 to organize a support group for nursing mothers transformed her into a world-traveling leader.
Not trendy at first
Breastfeeding fell out of vogue about 50 years ago when enthusiasm over scientific advancements led doctors to encourage women to feed their infants formula rather than breast milk.
Tompson wasn't one to follow trends. She went against the grain from the beginning with her children, opting to deliver them without medication.
"I was the only one in the hospital they had seen who had a natural birth," she said.
When Tompson gave birth to her third child, a group of 17 hospital employees -- externs, interns, even the receptionist -- came to watch, she said.
"They circled my delivery table," Tompson said. "After it was over, one of the residents walked up to my doctor and said, 'Doctor, how did you do it?'"
Tompson tried to breastfeed her first three children, but doctors told her she did not have enough milk because her infants cried less than four hours after feeding, she said.
Tompson said doctors expected larger spaces between feedings because bottle-fed infants took longer to digest formula.
"Breastfeeding every two hours is more natural," she said. "But we used to think that if we were paying a doctor, we should do what he says."
By the time Tompson was pregnant with her fourth baby in 1954, she had found a new obstetrician, Gregory White.
White allowed Tompson to give birth to her child at home. He was also the first doctor to support her in breastfeeding her child, Tompson said.
Tompson befriended White's wife, Mary. Tompson first mentioned her idea of starting a club for nursing mothers to Mrs. White at a picnic.
Tompson and Mrs. White contacted friends and other patients of Dr. White. Eventually they formed a group of seven women: Tompson, White, Mary Ann Kerwin, Edwina Froehlich, Betty Wagner, Viola Lennon and Mary Ann Cahill.

First meeting
Tompson led the group's first meeting in October 1956 at the Whites' home in Franklin Park.
"They made me the president because it was my idea," Tompson said. "I was very shy and retiring."
According to "The LLLove Story," a history published by the league, the founders' husbands invented nicknames for the group like The Bust Ladies and The Milk Maids.
Eventually Dr. White suggested the women name their group after a Catholic shrine to Madonna called Nuestra Senora de la Leche y Buen Parto or "Our Lady of Happy Delivery and Plentiful Milk."
White gave many of his patients medals from the shrine, so friends of the founders of the group recognized the name.
"We just thought we would know everyone who came to the meetings," Tompson said.
But the club expanded. The league published pamphlets, replied to letters, began issuing newsletters and eventually wrote a manual for women who wanted more information about breastfeeding.
"Women didn't talk about a lot of things in those days," Tompson said. "It was such a surprise to find other women who were having this problem. Our big surprise was when women we helped turned around and asked how they could help other women."
The founders formed a board to advise women who wanted to start their own chapters. Tompson served as its chair for 17 years.
In 1963 Betty Friedan's book The Feminine Mystique gave a voice to women feeling trapped in the roles of wife and mother. Tompson said feminists began to protest La Leche League meetings, which they said pressured women to stay in the home.
"Later on the feminist movement came to say women should be allowed to do what it is they want to do," she said.

The 21st century
Today La Leche League has more than 7,500 leaders in 65 countries, according to the organization's Web site. Women can attend meetings for free or pay $40 for a year's membership, which includes a subscription to the group's bimonthly publication and a discount on products it sells.
Some participants carry sleeping newborns on their shoulders. Some pause in their discussions to talk to their toddlers, who play at their feet.
Julia Moore, who brought her newborn, Lucia Scrimenti, to a meeting in September, said she started attending La Leche League while she was pregnant.
"It was helpful in keeping my expectations realistic," Moore said. "I wasn't expecting a lot of downtime. It's still hard once you get there. But it was nice looking forward to bringing [Lucia] in."
La Leche League attracts women with a variety of opinions about motherhood, leader Sharon Panzica said.
"You may see a toddler nursing," Panzica said to a group of women in September. "Make this a grocery store experience. Take what you need off the shelf. Leave the rest behind. You are the expert in your family, and you know what is best for your child."
The meetings cycle through four topics: the advantages of breastfeeding; the family and the breastfed baby; the art of breastfeeding and avoiding difficulties; and nutrition and weaning.
At one meeting, the women discussed how they accomplished ordinary tasks like taking a shower or shopping for groceries with a newborn.
After the group discussion, women approached leaders with individual questions.
Leader Claudia Morse showed one pregnant mother how to put her feet up to make breastfeeding more comfortable. She demonstrated how to position the baby with a doll filled with coins to simulate an infant's weight.
Leaders also counsel mothers over the phone and make house calls.
Moore said learning to breastfeed can take babies time.
"Even though it's natural, it's not easy," Moore said. "[Babies] have an instinct to breastfeed. They also have an instinct to walk, but it takes them a while to do it."
Dr. Richard Silver, chairman of obstetrics and gynecology at Evanston Northwestern Health Care, graduated from medical school at Northwestern University in 1981. He said little was taught about breastfeeding during his studies.
"But the pendulum has swung quite a bit in terms of the medical profession's advocacy of breastfeeding," he said.
Studies have shown a mother passes some of her immunity to her child through breast milk, Silver said.
"As a consequence those newborns get a little boost to their immune systems while they're figuring out how to develop their own antibodies," he said.
Still, many medical schools only mention breastfeeding in a couple of lectures, Silver said.

Mother benefits
Breastfeeding affects more than the baby, Silver said.
The pituitary gland in a pregnant woman's brain produces the peptide oxytocin. This hormone circulates through a woman's blood and attaches itself to receptors in different organs.
During labor, oxytocin causes the uterus to contract. It also causes tissue in the breasts to contract during breastfeeding.
Doctors also say oxytocin, sometimes called the "mothering hormone," has an effect on a woman's brain.
"The neurohormonal effect is not well understood," Silver said. "But since it's produced in the pituitary [close to the part of the brain that controls mood], it's easily understood that it can have a positive effect on mood."
Tompson said she believed the increased levels of oxytocin in her blood brought on by her breastfeeding made her more disposed toward taking care of her children.

Not finished
Tompson continues to give lectures around the world.
In 2001 she began a new organization called Another Look.
The organization's goals are to find funding to conduct a study of whether HIV can be passed from mother to child through breast milk, as is commonly believed, and to educate others about the issue.
"What I found out is there are no studies," Tompson said.
She traveled to Berlin to speak on the subject in September.
Once again, Tompson finds herself a globetrotting controversial figure. She did not plan it, she said.
"I didn't want to start another organization," Tompson said. "But it bothers me when women are misinformed."
More information about breastfeeding and La Leche League is available at LLLI | Home.