Founded in 1956 by seven women who had learned about successful breastfeeding while nursing their own babies, La Leche League is the only organization with the sole purpose of helping breastfeeding mothers.
Now 8,000 Leaders and 3,000 local Groups strong in the United States alone, La Leche League Groups meet regularly in communities worldwide to share breastfeeding information and mothering experience.
Each year, an estimated 750,000 American mothers call La Leche League with questions and concerns. Telephone counseling is available 24-hours a day, along with access to an extensive library of breastfeeding literature.
When a woman joins La Leche League, she participates in a mother-to-mother helping network, a priceless resource for breastfeeding and parenting help, support, knowledge, and inspiration.
You Are Invited
Breastfeeding is a wonderfully simple and natural process, but mothers do need support and information on such topics as the correct positioning of the baby at the breast, working and breastfeeding, avoiding problems, and overcoming any difficulties that may occur.
Questions also arise: Is my baby getting enough to eat? How can I tell? Why is my baby fussing? What can the father do to participate in caring for the baby? When should my baby wean? And so forth.
La Leche League's Philosophy
The basic philosophy of La Leche League is summarized in the following statements:
┬╖ Mothering through breastfeeding is the most natural and effective way of understanding and satisfying the needs of the baby.
┬╖ Mother and baby need to be together early and often to establish a satisfying relationship 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 milk 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 solids, 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 childbirth 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 father. A father's unique relationship with his baby is an important element in the child's development from early infancy.
┬╖ Good nutrition 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.
La Leche League's Purpose
La Leche League was founded to give information and encouragement, mainly through personal help, to all mothers who want to breastfeed their babies. While complementing the care of the physician and other health care professionals, it recognizes the unique importance of one mother helping another to perceive the needs of her child and to learn the best means of fulfilling those needs.
LLL believes that breastfeeding, with its many important physical and psychological advantages, is best for baby and mother and is the ideal way to initiate good parent-child relationships. The loving help and support of the father enables the mother to focus on mothering so that together the parents develop close relationships which strengthen the family and thus the whole fabric of society.
LLL further believes that mothering through breastfeeding deepens a mother's understanding and acceptance of the responsibilities and rewards of her special role in the family. As a woman grows in mothering she grows as a human being, and every other role she may fill in her lifetime is enriched by the insights and humanity she brings to it from her experiences as a mother.
The League's purpose is distinct. This singleness of purpose does not prevent interaction with other organizations with compatible purposes, but La Leche League will carefully guard against allying itself with another cause, however worthwhile that cause may be.
