Thoughts About LLL's Mission, Goals, and Philosophy
Leslie Del Gigante
Associate Director, LAD
Westerville, Ohio USA
From: LEAVEN, Vol. 29 No. 3, May-June 1993, pp. 39, 45
Recent preparations for Area
Conference sessions prompted me to do some thinking about LLL's mission,
goals, and philosophy and how Leader accreditation fits in. Is our focus
as an organization the provision of breast milk to as many babies around
the world as possible, or is our focus something more? We're about breastfeeding--mothers
nursing babies, you may answer in reply. Are we about making it possible
for women to nurse by providing accurate information about breastfeeding
techniques? Yes. Are we about more than information and techniques?
More than thirty-six years
ago a similar discussion about La Leche League's purpose took place.
(It's recorded on page 22 of THE LLLOVE
STORY.) The Founders gathered with supporter
Dr. Herbert Ratner to discuss the nature of this organization which
was forming before their eyes. The general opinion that evening was
that LLL was about helping mothers breastfeed, about providing the necessary
information to help mothers avoid or overcome problems and the statistics
and health claims to motivate mothers to keep on breastfeeding. Mary
Ann Cahill describes how Dr. Ratner would not let the discussion end
here, but kept questioning and probing. His persistence led the Founders
to the realization that the heart of their organization was not breastfeeding
information alone. As Mary Ann Cahill later wrote, "For between and
around and after the words on know-how and statistics at the meetings,
is the talk of the mothers about their nursing experiences....Talk that
has a constantly recurring theme--the quick, strong love-ties so natural
between a nursing mother and her baby; the mother's sure understanding
of her baby's needs and her joy and confidence in herself to satisfy
them; the happy dividends from this good relationship as the baby grows
up. A theme first sensed, gradually understood and absorbed, and finally
realized by a mother as she nurses her own baby."
A Goal for La Leche League
The Board members unanimously
concluded that La Leche League's goal would be to help mothers successfully
breastfeed their babies, thus successfully mother them.
I invite each of you reading
these words to think for a moment about your own association with LLL.
What keeps you as an active and committed volunteer year after year?
What's in it for you? Is it, as Mary Ann Cahill commented back in 1958,
the "talk that has a constantly recurring theme"--the talk which supports
you as a woman and mother? Isn't this what keeps mothers returning to
meetings month after month? Isn't it the value of this "talk" which
keeps many women active in La Leche League long after their youngest
child weans? Isn't this the key to the success of the mother-to-mother
support group and LLL over the past 36 years?
Mother support groups have
proven themselves to be effective in promoting success at breastfeeding
as well as prolonging its duration. Today, UNICEF and the World Health
Organization are two of the international organizations that recognize
LLL's expertise in developing and managing mother support groups. And
to think that over 36 years ago, Dr. Ratner led the Founders to the
heart of LLL's (and breastfeeding's) success, mother-to-mother support!
Consider the nature of the
mother support group. It's appealing and effective because it's a gathering,
a community of mothers who share similar experiences and concerns. LLL
offers mother-to-mother support. In a world with many people qualified
to offer breastfeeding information, our credibility comes from our having
done it ourselves. How many health professionals can make that claim?
LLL offers something special and mothers recognize and benefit from
the difference.
The mother support group
provides a ready-made peer group for women who attend. How many of us
have moved and found a La Leche League Group to be a familiar oasis
in a new and strange community? The peer group also provides important
role models for its members and can significantly influence their behavior
and attitudes. The example that the peer group provides its members
is determined by its values--its philosophy.
La Leche League Groups have
a specific philosophy derived from the "mothering through breastfeeding"
emphasis which the Founders set for the organization in 1958. Consider
for a moment the power of this philosophy in action at LLL meetings.
What first attracted you to LLL and what impressed you so that you went
back for a second and third time? I asked this question at Leader gatherings
in Ohio and Oregon recently and received similar replies: the attitude
of the Leader, the caring manner of the Leader, her air of confidence,
her loving interaction with her child. No one answered the breastfeeding
expertise of the Leader. No one remembered technical charts or specific
words of the Leader but very many described her behavior, her manner,
her attitude, and the atmosphere of the Group. The message that there
was more to all this than breastfeeding advice came through loud and
clear and provided the motivation to come back and find out more.
I also asked whether anyone
had come to LLL because they were influenced by what they read in THE
WOMANLY ART. My local
library provided me my first contact with La Leche League, although
I had to go into the locked "adult room" accompanied by the librarian
to obtain the old, blue WOMANLY ART.
For all its fine information, it did not get me to attend meetings,
and in fact made me suspect LLL because of its outrageous recommendation
to begin solids around the middle of the first year. Some months later,
I accompanied a neighbor to an LLL meeting where THE
WOMANLY ART came
to life and began to take on meaning and relevance for me. People living
the suggestions (yes, even late solids) and the philosophy made all
the difference.
As we know from our experience
raising our own children, what we do sends a much stronger and long-lasting
message than what we say. For this reason, LLLI accredits, as its representatives,
women whose personal philosophies on breastfeeding and mothering match
LLL's. Accepting or believing in this philosophy is not enough--a Leader
must act on it in order to influence others. Our philosophy comes across
in our actions, and the world learns of La Leche League through the
actions of its Leaders.
One of the biggest responsibilities
of a Leader is to take an active interest in helping mothers learn about
leadership and to help Applicants prepare to become Leaders. When you
fulfill this responsibility, you work directly with the heart of LLL--its
philosophy, and you work with the future--its new Leaders. You share
the continued success of LLL when you encourage and assist the leadership
applications of women whose "mothering through breastfeeding" philosophies
come through loud and clear in both words and actions. When your "active
interest" leads to the accreditation of a new co-Leader, La Leche League's
message comes to life for a new generation of families.
Page last edited Sun Oct 14 09:32:13 UTC 2007.
