La Leche League International - History

History

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.

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 (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”.