I get a lot of sad comments from women who found LLL to be an invaluable support when they were breastfeeding, but who have stopped recommending LLL to today's mothers because of their adoption of gender ideology over the importance of the mother/baby dyad.
Take a look at what has just happened in the UK, La Leche. Pandering to gender ideologues--at the expense of women's rights and dignity--is a quickly turning tide. I once had great faith in LLL. I would like to again. But as long as gender ideology harms women and children (and it certainly does!) I will never trust an organization that espouses it--either linguistically or practically. Only women give birth and breastfeed, and only women can be mothers.
LLL made us mothers feel secure and safe. It was often the only place to turn to when you were going through the most enormous events, birth and breast feeding. The fact that it didn't involve itself in any other issues was what made it so powerful. Breast feeding is after all totally consuming and the care of a newborn baby is the only thing that matters to a new mother.
To have men trample through this sacred space is the equivalent of domestic abuse.
This is such a beautiful perspective on breastfeeding . There is so much talk these days about “embodied spirituality." What does it mean to live life as a sentient being with a soul? This concept is explored in various philosophical and spiritual contexts, but it is mind-boggling to me that it is not simultaneously examined in a purely physiological, or material, context. I have not met any mother who has breastfed for an extended period of time who fails to understand what embodied spirituality means. Their material bodies give them the experience of love that transcends the material world. A mother’s body dissolves in life-sustaining love and nourishment. A mother will never see the world the same way again. Everything that touches her child will touch her too.
So thank you, Lucy, for this important article and for protecting the experiences of mothers and babies everywhere. What could be more inclusive than that!?
thank you for this article ! i loved LLL when i had babies it is so sad this resource has transformed from the original mission
I get a lot of sad comments from women who found LLL to be an invaluable support when they were breastfeeding, but who have stopped recommending LLL to today's mothers because of their adoption of gender ideology over the importance of the mother/baby dyad.
Things change 😕it’s unfortunate there is no resource that can step up
Take a look at what has just happened in the UK, La Leche. Pandering to gender ideologues--at the expense of women's rights and dignity--is a quickly turning tide. I once had great faith in LLL. I would like to again. But as long as gender ideology harms women and children (and it certainly does!) I will never trust an organization that espouses it--either linguistically or practically. Only women give birth and breastfeed, and only women can be mothers.
LLL made us mothers feel secure and safe. It was often the only place to turn to when you were going through the most enormous events, birth and breast feeding. The fact that it didn't involve itself in any other issues was what made it so powerful. Breast feeding is after all totally consuming and the care of a newborn baby is the only thing that matters to a new mother.
To have men trample through this sacred space is the equivalent of domestic abuse.
It needs to be protected.
I was a leader for 25 years and this sickens me.
This is such a beautiful perspective on breastfeeding . There is so much talk these days about “embodied spirituality." What does it mean to live life as a sentient being with a soul? This concept is explored in various philosophical and spiritual contexts, but it is mind-boggling to me that it is not simultaneously examined in a purely physiological, or material, context. I have not met any mother who has breastfed for an extended period of time who fails to understand what embodied spirituality means. Their material bodies give them the experience of love that transcends the material world. A mother’s body dissolves in life-sustaining love and nourishment. A mother will never see the world the same way again. Everything that touches her child will touch her too.
So thank you, Lucy, for this important article and for protecting the experiences of mothers and babies everywhere. What could be more inclusive than that!?