La Leche League: At the Crossroads of Medicine, Feminism, and Religion / Edition 1

by Jule DeJager Ward

Overview

In 1956, when La Leche League was founded, if a new mother chose to breastfeed rather than bottlefeed her child, she could by no means expect universal support for her decision. Though physicians of the era admitted that breastfeeding was the best method of infant feeding, they warned of the difficulties that nursing mothers faced, and many held that successful breastfeeding required a knowledge of science and medicine that most new mothers could not claim. Started by seven Catholic women who simply wished to help their friends learn to breastfeed, La Leche League grew into an organization with several million members worldwide, known here and abroad for its pathbreaking promotion of the breastfeeding of infants.

Offering a fascinating look inside an organization whose full history has been essentially untold, Jule Ward explores the genesis, theological underpinnings, and development of La Leche League. She demonstrates that, despite distancing itself from any overt expression of its religious roots, the organization remains a quasi-religious articulation of Catholic social thought blended with scientific ideology and feminism. In short, says Ward, the story of La Leche League provides an excellent example of how religion in practice permeates everyday life.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780807847916
Publisher:	The University of North Carolina Press
Publication date:	01/24/2000
Edition description:	1
Pages:	248
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.25(h) x 0.55(d)

About the Author

le DeJager Ward teaches religious studies at DePaul University.

Table of Contents

CONTENTS
Preface
Introduction. La Leche League: Religious Metaphors in a Secular Ethos 1
Chapter 1. What Is La Leche League?
Chapter 2. Mothers, Medicine, and Misinformation
Chapter 3. An Alternative Approach: Maternal Knowing
Chapter 4. Feminism and the Motherhood Wars
Chapter 5. Challenging the Public Domain from within the Private Sphere
Chapter 6. The Evolution of a Catholic Theology of the Family
Chapter 7. The La Leche League Family: Natural, Loving, and Just
Chapter 8. Asking the Hard Questions
Chapter 9. Coping Strategies for a Changing Environment
Notes
Bibliography
Index

Illustrations

Six of the founding mothers of La Leche League, 1957
Several editions of The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding
Founders share parenting stories with young mothers
Dr. Gregory White at La Leche League's twenty-fifth anniversary conference
La Leche League gathering
La Leche League newsletters
Maria Hidalgo Dolan and her fourteen-month-old son, 1989
Debbie and Jack Bray with their children
La Leche League family demonstrating involvement of both mother and father
International participants at a La Leche League convention
League leadership training materials
La Leche League high school breastfeeding class

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

Offers much historical background and contemporary assessment of what has made the League so appealing over time and across cultures.—Journal of the American Medical Association

A readable history and philosophy of the organization. . . . This book is well referenced, illustrated, and indexed, and highly recommended for college and university libraries that support courses in women's history, religion, ethics, nursing, sociology, anthropology, and public health.—Choice

This fascinating, accessible cultural study explores the interplay of religion and feminism in La Leche League. . . . Ward approaches her often-controversial subject with empathy and finesse.—Publishers Weekly

A fascinating look inside an organization whose full history has been essentially untold.—American Catholic Studies Newsletter

This book presents an engaging analysis of how informal encounters at a Catholic family picnic in 1956 grew into an internationally acclaimed organization that uses woman-to-woman networks to enhance breast feeding practices. Focusing on the positive, Ward describes the theological, feminist, and medical viewpoints that jointly fueled the engine of the La Leche League success story.—Judith Walzer Leavitt, University of Wisconsin-Madison

While lactation and nursing may seem rather unimportant maternal matters, in actuality La Leche League tells an intriguing tale of the revival of an intimate practice at the heart of child rearing and hence at the core of family life, development, relationships, and even human love. In a word, La Leche League participated in creating new ideals of motherhood, and Jule Ward tells the story of this evolution with finesse and insight. Her fine cultural analysis of the religious roots in Catholicism and the complex debates within the feminist movement should interest many people, from those in women's studies and history to those in religious studies and practical theology. Out of a movement that many of us simply take for granted come fascinating insights into the nature of human community and practical wisdom.—Bonnie J. Miller-McLemore, Vanderbilt University

Editorial Reviews

This book is well referenced, illustrated, and indexed.

"Choice"

"This book is well referenced, illustrated, and indexed.

"Choice""

A fascinating look inside an organization whose full history has been essentially untold.

"American Catholic Studies Newsletter"

Offers much historical background and contemporary assessment of what has made the League so appealing.

"Journal of the American Medical Association"

Ward approaches her often-controversial subject with empathy and finesse.

"Publishers Weekly"

From the Publisher