Volunteers Help Mothers to Breastfeed: The Work of La Leche League International
The work of La Leche League International (LLLI) is to promote and support breastfeeding. This work is accomplished through a vast corps of volunteers. These volunteers, called La Leche League Leaders (LLL Leaders), are women who support other women in the communities in which they live. Over 6000 women are currently implementing volunteer activities in 68 countries. Since its inception in 1956, La Leche League has accredited over 43,000 Leaders worldwide. Many of these Leaders spend their life promoting and protecting breastfeeding in their families and communities.
LLL Leaders use a “mother-to-mother support” approach, which is a powerful strategy for catalyzing individual change and bringing awareness and information to a community. It is an approach that encourages and facilitates a woman’s participation in decision making, in developing a sense of community, and in gaining control over the health of her children.
Breastfeeding a baby, in itself, is an empowering act for a woman. Empowered women contribute to the building of a healthy and educated society and promote gender equality.
Breastfeeding has been shown through many scientific studies to be the cornerstone of life-long health. In an emerging or developed country, or in primitive conditions created by natural or man-made disasters, breastfed babies receive nourishment and so much more.
For generations, breastfeeding skills were passed on to women from their own community of women. Unfortunately in 1956, when LLLI was founded, this type of community had been disrupted. The organization quickly grew, with volunteers taking the idea of accurate information and mother-to-mother support across the USA and then around the world. Still, in the 21st century, accurate information and support are not available to many women. LLL Leaders volunteer their skills and support to fill this need because it has been shown that women can breastfeed when they get information and help from women who have breastfed successfully. What started as a neighborhood resource blossomed because it filled the need for information and understanding for mothers in communities around the world.
Through the work of volunteer LLL Leaders, the organization has been able to emphasize the role of breastfeeding as a vital health practice for both babies and their mothers. Through the volunteers, how the medical profession views the relationship of the nursing dyad has changed and improved. Every day, in communities in 68 countries around the world, LLL volunteers offer the information and confidence-building that is necessary to support families to give their babies the very best start in life.
Clearly, La Leche League’s work, through its volunteers, helps to create a more just, equitable and sustainable world. By working to keep mothers and babies together, LLL Leaders strive to ensure that strong families are nurtured and sustained, thus building a strong civil society.
Every LLL Leader shares the mission of the organization to encourage, inform, educate and promote a better understanding of breastfeeding as an important element in the healthy development of both babies and mothers. This volunteer work takes many forms. Among the highlights of volunteer activities in 2006 are the following:
• In Argentina, volunteers distributed printed breastfeeding information to over 35,000 mothers.
• In Latin America, over 250 volunteers counseled mothers through 20,600 phone calls, nearly 4400 e-mail and fax transmissions, and in nearly 11,500 face-to-face interactions.
• New Zealand volunteer LLL Leaders averaged 206 contacts each. Thus, 107 Leaders assisted mothers over 22,000 times through telephone counseling, LLL Group activities, and community outreach events.
• Volunteer LLL Leaders in Peru were instrumental in the passing of a law that exempts a breastfeeding mother from serving as an election judge, thus ensuring mother/infant togetherness.
• LLL Leaders in Massachusetts, USA, served on a committee for the American Institute for Cancer Research, helping in the formation of a report that recommends breastfeeding as one of ten ways to prevent cancer.
• LLL Leaders in Ohio, USA volunteered their time and efforts on behalf of detained immigrants who had been separated from their breastfeeding infants. These efforts led the Immigration and Naturalization Service to re-examine and change its policies regarding separating breastfeeding immigrant mothers and their nursing infants.
• LLL Leaders reached over 200,000 women worldwide through telephone helping, Group meetings and other outreach activities.
• The LLLI website averaged 2.1 million hits per month, and is expected to grow 2 to 10 percent a year. This site is well supported by volunteer Leaders, who not only develop and update the site, but also provide online breastfeeding assistance through help forms and virtual meetings.
For more information about Civicus, visit www.civicus.org
Page last edited Wed Dec 05 17:57:09 UTC 2007.
