La Leche League has been battling public perceptions since it was founded more than 40 years ago. The idea was formed at a church picnic in Elmhurst as two friends sat together nursing their children and woman after woman approached them with questions about breast-feeding.
In 1956 breast-feeding a child in public, while understood to be natural, was, well, not polite. And the climate of the times was such that the local newspapers, priding themselves on being decent family fare, were in no way going to print a meeting notice from a group billing itself as the Breastfeeding Mothers of America.
So the women chose la leche, Spanish for “the milk,” combined it with the alliterative “league,” and the only organization devoted to providing information and support for nursing mothers was born.
“We provide mother-to-mother support,” said Carla Dobrovits, co-leader of the Beverly-Oak Lawn La Leche League.
La Leche League currently reaches 200,000 women at its monthly meetings in the U.S., and the organization has chapters in 66 countries, according to Mary Lofton, a spokeswoman for LLL International, headquartered in Schaumburg.
The Beverly-Oak Lawn group was formed more than 30 years ago and serves the Southwest Side of Chicago and a number of southwest suburbs, including Evergreen Park, Burbank and Merrionette Park.
At a recent meeting, 10 women, along with more than a dozen children, gathered in Dobrovits’ basement to talk about breast-feeding. The women agreed that breast-feeding is still not a decision easily made.
“When you are nursing, you need some support,” said Julia Sittig, 26, of Chicago’s Ashburn neighborhood. “So many people are telling you different things, and 90 percent are telling you not to do it.”
“It’s real easy to listen to naysayers when you don’t have any support,” added Lizzy Benoit, 22, of Beverly.
Benoit had never heard of La Leche League; she ran across the name in a vegetarian nutrition book while pregnant with son Alex, now 10 months, and her husband tracked down the phone number at the library. “We thought it was some little group no one had ever heard of,” she said.
On the contrary, the La Leche League is the world’s largest resource for breast-feeding and related information. The group distributes more than 3 million publications each year and serves as a storehouse of studies, articles and other research about breast-feeding, Lofton said.
According to the league, human milk provides all of the nutrients a baby needs in exactly the right proportions.
Proponents also say breast-fed babies are smarter, healthier and have fewer allergies. Studies have shown that a protein in human milk aids in brain development, and breast-fed babies are less likely to get gastrointestinal infections and diarrhea, respiratory and ear infections or more serious diseases such as pneumonia, and there is a lower risk of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. Long-term benefits, the league says, include lowered risks of childhood lymphomas and chronic liver disease.
Breast-feeding also benefits the mother, proponents say. Baby and mom become closer physically and emotionally; nursing releases two hormones in women, oxytocin and prolactin, which stimulate nurturing behavior and help mothers relax, members say. Women also lose weight quicker, and breast-feeding also protects against breast cancer, they add.
“La Leche is a very worthy support group for mothers,” said Sandy Glynn, a registered nurse and board-certified lactation consultant at Christ Hospital and Medical Center in Oak Lawn. “For medical problems, women should talk to their doctors, but for routine practice, the group provides good counsel and information to new moms.”
Glynn said the hospital also uses La Leche materials to keep its own staff updated.
There is an art to breast-feeding. Technique, position and atmosphere all play a part, and problems arise, especially for first-time moms, when mother and child are not in union. “How are we supposed to know if we’ve never seen anyone breast-feed?” Dobrovits asked.
“I couldn’t get my son to latch on,” said Michelle Thomas, 35, of Oak Lawn. “He wouldn’t feed.” Although she had done some reading on breast-feeding, practice was not going perfectly. Thomas called friends and relatives for advice; a neighbor, who had attended La Leche League meetings, demonstrated the “football hold” position that tiny Kevin took to in an instant.
Thomas joined the Beverly-Oak Lawn group and has continued to attend through the birth of a second child, Laura, 6 months. “The meetings go beyond just talking about breast-feeding. It’s about child-rearing,” she said. “You come away from meetings thinking, `Oh, so that’s why that happens.’ “
The Beverly-Oak Lawn group’s recent meeting was held on a Wednesday morning; the daytime get-together was a supplement to the regular monthly meetings, which are held on the third Thursday of each month at 7 p.m. in Evergreen Park. Each monthly meeting is devoted to a specific topic–the advantages of breast-feeding, baby’s first few weeks, the art of breast-feeding and overcoming difficulties, and nutrition and weaning.
While providing information from the medical profession, La Leche League offers pregnant and nursing women access to the real experts: other moms.
“There are a lot of differing experiences and ways of mothering. We try to be respectful of each other,” said Dobrovits, the mother of two boys, Brent, 5, and Luke, 3 1/2.
According to figures compiled by La Leche League, 59 percent of women who give birth in the U.S. leave the hospital nursing. That number plummets to 20 percent after three months. However, the American Pediatric Association in 1992 recommended that infants be fed breast milk for the fist 6 to 12 months, while the World Health Organization recommends children in Third World countries be breast-fed until age 2.
Dobrovits said the group does not require new mothers to adhere to any specific timetable. “Whatever works for you and your family,” Dobrovits said. “We want to help a family have the breast-feeding experience they want to have.”
The league has come a long way since those first meetings in Franklin Park and has made strides in publicizing and encouraging breast-feeding. This first week in August marked World Breastfeeding Week, and the local group hosted a World Walk for Breastfeeding in the Beverly neighborhood that attracted 65 walkers and raised about $1,000 through pledges.
But, despite very public displays of breasts on television, in movies and, especially, music videos, a nursing mother may still draw disapproving looks if she breast-feeds her child anywhere but in the privacy of her own home.
Sometimes, though, even home can be a problem. Karen Smith, 30, of Oak Lawn had to overcome the awkwardness and embarrassment of her husband’s five brothers, all of whom often visited. “It was uncomfortable at first,” she said. “But I made myself stay at the dinner table and breast-feed. I wanted to make this part of our normal routine.”
The group’s discussions have even centered on how to most modestly breast-feed a baby. “I can show less skin than the teenagers at the mall,” said Colleen Sollinger, 25, of Beverly.
Public perceptions are changing, said Margie Ramirez, 26, of Ashburn. “But you tend to get eyeballed more with a toddler,” she said. Ramirez continues to breast-feed 20-month-old Juliana.
“I’ve seen some evil looks,” said Marci Kristof, 30, of Evergreen Park, the mother of John, 14 months. “But I keep an I-dare-you look on my face, so most people leave me alone.”
Dobrovits said the moms illustrate another benefit of breast-feeding: becoming more self-confident.
“It is an empowering thing,” she said. “You are trusting your instinct. You are trusting your body to provide for your child.”
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For more information on La Leche League, call 800-525-3243.
