I realize that it is Father’s Day. Still, I think that one of the most interesting stories that the mainstream press missed — or seriously, seriously underplayed — during the past few days was the death of a truly revolutionary mother.
When you try to judge the importance of a person’s life in terms of news impact, you have to stop and think about the number of people that this person’s life touched and the degree to which their achievement actually affected some kind of substantial, important issue.
With that in mind, consider the life and impact of Edwina Froehlich, whose trailblazing work with the La Lache League helped restore breastfeeding as a lifestyle option for women living in mainstream America. The impact on the health of young children? Almost off the charts. It is amazing to think that there was actually a time when medical professionals all but forced women not to breastfeed their children, believing that super-duper, scientist-approved formulas were better than, well, what God or random, purposeless mutations had created.
I watched to see who would cover this story and the answer is: Not many people. The Chicago Tribune had a report, which is logical since this was, in part, a local story.
Edwina Froehlich, whose suspicions of the medical establishment were stoked by what her older sister went through in childbirth, was one of seven suburban woman who started La Leche League in 1956 to support women interested in breast-feeding.
Mrs. Froehlich, 93, died Sunday, June 8, at Northwest Community Hospital in Arlington Heights of complications from a stroke suffered two weeks earlier. In October 1956, Mrs. Froehlich was pregnant with her third son when she joined six other women from Franklin Park in the living room of Mary White’s home to talk about breast-feeding. …
At the time, many doctors were promoting infant formula as superior to mother’s milk. Mrs. Froehlich, who breast-fed all three of her children, and her cohorts felt otherwise and didn’t think they were getting straight information from their doctors.
“We all felt a mother should listen to her body, her nature,” Mrs. Froehlich said in a 1996 Tribune interview. “We could see clearly that if you trusted your inner self, you could do something amazing.”
How controversial was this? The story notes that mainstream newspapers would not run articles that contained the word “breast,” so the group used “leche” — Spanish for “milk” — in its name to veer around the facts of the matter.
In the truest sense of the word, these women were rebels.
So why did they do it? There were reasons linked to events in her family and it is also clear that Froehlich and her co-conspirators believed that what they were teaching was good for women and their children.
But there is one other factor that the story barely mentions.
Mrs. Froehlich was born Edwina Hearn in the Bronx and came to Chicago to attend Mundelein College. A devout Catholic, she worked with the Catholic Family Movement and was national executive director for the Young Christian Workers before marrying John Froehlich in 1948.
Do you think this Catholic activism had anything to do with her then radical beliefs about parenting and, well, what might be called “natural law”? Perhaps.
Millions of people have been affected by this movement. That’s a story and lots of newspapers missed it. Totally.
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Comments (12) |
June 16, 2008, at 1:38 am
I agree. Big impact these women had on their culture and contemporaries, and eventually on other shores where westerners had convinced native peoples that breastfeeding was backwards and not as good as formula. Eventually the organization they birthed even impacted the medical community. I’ll never forget when the American Academy of Pediatricians finally came out and said (in the late 70s?) that breastfeeding was best for the first year of life and the only nutrition infants needed for the first 4-6 months. (And those of us who already knew either said “duh” or “Alleluia!”)
June 16, 2008, at 7:56 am
I learned the news in the NYT obituary, and then blogged about it straightaway. On Friday, I drafted an editorial praising Froehlich as a pioneer, and will submit it to my Dallas Morning News colleagues at our editorial board meeting this morning. I suspect it’ll be approved. So that’s something. Not much, but something.
June 16, 2008, at 9:05 am
My wife, who now works as a family physician, was a La Lache League leader for several years, and it still informs her life today. Thanks for tipping us off to this story. Too bad it didn’t get more coverage.
June 16, 2008, at 10:17 am
When I had my kids in the 60s the La Leche League ladies were still considered kind of kooky. There was no support or encouragement for breast-feeding from the general medical community. In the late 60s some connected it to the hippy “earth mother” phenomenon. It was the Our Bodies, Our Selves book that helped it go mainstream among young women. I remember people around me saying that it was really difficult to breast feed. The nurses in the hospital would give newbies bottle milk just to make sure the baby was getting enough nutrition. My friends and I worried that the plumbing wouldn’t work - and if you’re that stressed, of course, often it didn’t work. See, said the Mrs Grundy’s, give the baby a bottle.
These LeLeche League folks really did have a huge impact; I guess you have to be older to understand their influence. I remember reading about poor, but perfectly healthy women in African villages talked out of breast-feeding who were diluting formula to make it go further because it was so expensive, resulting in their children being malnourished.
My grandkids have all been breast-fed with no to-do involved at all. Hurray.
Huge story. Google “Nestle formula Africa”.
Here’s Wiki on the subject citing other heroes, successors to the La Leche ladies. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nestl%C3%A9_boycott
June 16, 2008, at 11:13 am
Thank you for honoring the works of Edwina. As a La Leche League Leader, I can tell you that the women who are serving in these roles and who have followed after the founding mothers of La Leche League are still rebels who undergo a great amount of training for a cause they believe in, and give their time for free to help get mothers and babies off to the best start that God intended.
Eleven years ago, I was having problems with breastfeeding and I had calls into three lactation consultants and a La Leche League Leader. The La Leche League Leader is the one who called back and thanks to her, we were able to get a baby nursing who because of allergies, might have been a lot worse off than he was. I am always greatful to Shawn, and to the efforts of Edwina Froehlich and the other founding mothers.
We still are considered kind of kooky, but in reality, the role of La Leche League is to help each mother and newborn have a good start to their breastfeeding relationship through mother to mother support, and to help them continue for as long as they choose to…be that six weeks, a year, two years, or when they choose to wean naturally. Every drop of breastmilk helps build that solid beginning.
June 16, 2008, at 12:14 pm
My three sisters and I were born between 1958 and 1964. The fact that none of us were breast-fed by our stay-at-home mom was news to me when I asked my mom about it a few years ago. I had no idea that breast-feeding was considered backwards and proponents were considered kooky at that time. Given the dominance of Boomers today, I find it extremely odd that the life and impact of Froehlich is getting so little play in the MSM.
June 16, 2008, at 2:08 pm
Thank you, thank you, thank you for noting this here.
June 16, 2008, at 2:31 pm
Oh, and on the question asked. Yes, I think the Catholic lady was probably influenced by “natural law” notions about taking cues for behavior from the natural functions of the body. Because of emphasis on the Incarnation, Catholic ways of thinking tend to be very earthy and embodied.
Very perceptive of tmatt to pick up on the connection.
June 16, 2008, at 7:00 pm
JULIA:
Well, I am Eastern Orthodox. Common roots and tons of shared moral beliefs there….
June 16, 2008, at 8:55 pm
I remembered reading years ago that LLL took its name from a Spanish Catholic name for the Virgin Mary. And here it is: “La Leche League’s publicity materials state that its name was inspired by a Florida shrine to ‘Nuestra Señora de la Leche y buen parto,’ literally, ‘Our Lady of Happy Delivery and Plentiful Milk.’” (From an article Mrs. Froelich in the New York Sun online edition, dated June 12, 2008)
June 16, 2008, at 11:33 pm
We have truly lost one of the great women of our time. I had the privilege of meeting her at an LLL Conference in Arkansas in the 90s (when I was a Leader in Oklahoma). The founders of La Leche League remain my greatest heroes of all time!
June 23, 2008, at 12:56 pm
When I think about the positive influences in my life, LaLecheLeague is right at the top. The friendships and the encouragement to do what my heart told me was right for my children have been blessings beyond compare. I am so thankful for these daring women who blazed a trail I was so honored to follow.