Goodbye to a revolutionary who wore pearls.

Edwina Froehlich, one of the seven mothers who founded La Leche League, International, passed away yesterday at the age of 93.

La Leche League's website announced her passing:

"In 1956, Edwina Froehlich and six other women met in Franklin Park, Illinois to share information on how to successfully breastfeed their babies. The group quickly attracted the attention of other women and became an organization called La Leche League.

'In those days you didn’t mention ‘breast’ in print,' Froehlich once said. 'We knew that if we were ever going to get anything in the paper we would have to find a name that wouldn’t actually tell people what our organization was about.' The breastfeeding support group took the Spanish name for milk as its name. From these roots grew La Leche League International, a breastfeeding support not-for-profit organization, which has groups in every U.S. state and in 68 different countries. The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding has been translated into eight languages and Braille."

Edwina had her first baby at the "advanced" age of 35, and was told that the breasts of a woman over 30 could not produce milk.  She went on to nurse each of her three sons.  She was in many a maverick for her time, leading a Catholic organization dedicated to social change, becoming a "career woman," and choosing home births for her children.

I've been reading The Revolutionaries Wore Pearls (La Leche League, International, 2007), which tells the story of Edwina and the other six founding members of La Leche League.  I'd highly recommend to anyone interested in the origins of La Leche League and the re-birth of breastfeeding. The book, which was published to commemorate the 50th anniversary of La Leche League's founding, is designed to look like an old fashioned family scrapbook, with photos, press clippings, and a lot of pearls. 

While we accept as fact that breastfeeding and mother-infant attachment is important, the seven founders raised children in an era in which mothers were taught to withhold affectionate contact with their babies for fear of "spoiling" them or even causing them brain damage.  Needless to say, formula feeding and strict feeding schedules were the norm, and babies and mothers were routinely separated for the first 24 hours following birth.  Participation in the birth of one's baby was unheard of.  One of the founders recalling her natural delivery in 1947, said "I think it made the doctor very nervous.  He had never worked on a conscious mother before."

The Revolutionaries Wore Pearls also demonstrates the remarkable influence of this La Leche League - a mother-run, volunteer organization.  La Leche League founders and leaders were instrumental in the development of the lactation consultant profession and the development of breastfeeding peer counselor programs used by WIC and around the world.  They monitored press reports for accuracy, disputed poor research, and spurred the development of the field of human lactation research.  They have played a significant role in breastfeeding related public policy at local, state, federal, and international levels.

One particularly fun chapter illustrates the power of celebrity in promoting breastfeeding.  Princess Grace of Monaco, who had nursed all three of her children, gave the keynote address at La Leche League's 1971 conference to a packed, star struck audience, giving a significant boost to the organization and to breastfeeding.   

The understated courage and dedication of these women is beautifully portrayed in this book.  It's clear that they refused to bow to pressure which came from all directions.  While raising a total of 56 children, they personally answered every single letter and phone call they received from mothers struggling to nurse their babies.  They wore pearls and hats and white gloves, referred to each other as Mrs. Gregory White and Mrs. John Froehlich, and remained steadfast in their determination to reclaim motherhood.  They changed the world, one mother at a time.

For a great video on the founders of La Leche League, which includes some footage of Edwina Froehlich, see this post.

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