The Trans Inclusion Controversy That Took Over La Leche League w/Helen Joyce & Marian Tompson | 198
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 9 ก.พ. 2025
- In this special episode, Sasha and Stella pass the mic to honorary guest host, journalist, author, and feminist campaigner, Helen Joyce, who interviews Marian Tompson, in connection with Joyce’s recent article about Marian in The Times, "Why I Quit the Breastfeeding Charity I Founded Over Trans Ideology".
Marian Tompson, along with six other mothers, founded the global breastfeeding support network, La Leche League, in 1956. In November 2024, Tompson resigned from both the organization and its Board of Directors, believing it had strayed from its original mission to support biological mothers in breastfeeding.
Helen’s conversation with Marian touches on the physiological intricacies of breastfeeding, the historical challenges women faced to maintain breastfeeding practices, and the broader implications of integrating transgender individuals into traditionally female-centered spaces like La Leche League. Together, they share a candid discussion exploring how biological realities, societal shifts, and ideological debates converge in today’s discourse on gender, motherhood, and breastfeeding.
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So sad that a generation of young women are growing up and living without women only organizations. It is critical to self esteem, safety and to the development of personal identity.
I am a 66-year-old woman who only had one child and I breast feed my son for 2 years.
I was telling someone recently that the most intimate experience I’ve ever had in my life was to breast feed my son. As this small beautiful being sat at my breast, he would look at me with such unconditional love.
I so appreciate this conversation.
Amazing interview. What courage this 95 year old had to stand up to this scary nonsense endangering babies. Lovely to see Helen. She doesn't do enough interviews now. Helen, you need your own podcast.
I would subscribe an embarrassing amount of cash money to listen to Helen Joyce's podcast.
I believe that at 95, you do not have any mor Fs to give about the risk of being cancelled.
I am more impressed by her acuity of mind (my dad died at 90 ½ and had suffered
(though I'd say that we daughters suffered more) from dementia for some years prior to that(
and the amount of LIFE FORCE she still has at that age.
Stella…I take it a different way. She at 95 is taking a major stand! If I were still a Leader today I would join her in leaving. Kudos to her again for being a trailblazer. She, with her energy efforts and life’s work, has changed so many lives for the better. The world is cracked imo if we accept anyone on hormones breastfeeding. 10 years ago women were advised not to take any prescription drugs, drink alcohol to excess, drink too much caffeine and watch their dietary patterns if baby was fussy yet we are accepting trans men and trans women who are riddled with meds to maintain their physical changes, giving this tainted substance to children to grow their bodies!?! Babies are definitely no longer the priority. In the name of virtue and inclusion we are accepting child abuse. It’s sickening!
That's a good way to look at it. If I were her I would be feeling like I had lived too long 😂
Babies have not been a priority for a long time. This new age feminism is toxic. Bring back mothering. Bring back nursing and staying at home for a few years. Our babies need us.
"Meds to maintain their physical changes"
...like estrogen? Does that make breast milk a tainted substance?
@@HansLemurson Likely!
@@jmk576 Why are you blaming feminists? I am a feminist and strongly against the toxic drugs being fed to babies.
Thank you so much for having the wonderful Helen Joyce on the show! 💟
This was marvellous. Always a joy and a privilege to listen to Helen, but this incredible lady - Marian Tompson - what a wonderful woman. An honour to listen to her and I am so pleased that she is standing strong.
Thank you so much for this episode. We need to bring back families and support for moms. I felt so alone as a breastfeeding sahm. But deep down I knew it was right. Moms need help with nursing and parenting.
Real community, not just online
Fantastic, absolutely wonderful to hear about the foundations and the value placed on the mother baby dyad in the fourth trimester undescoring the miracle of pregnancy and breastfeeding. What an impressive and important contribution Marian Tompson has given humanity.
Oh my god this makes my brain hurt. How did this rubbish happen.
Stella and Sasha I how you have a wonderful Christmas. Thanks for this wonderful series of podcasts
same like how is this ok???! I cannot imagine being in a an all women’s bf group with trans men feeding their babies. that’s so uncomfortable and it was hard enough to get started :(
@@shannoncapocci8361 Trans men are actually women, so they are not the problem. I wouldn't want to be in a group that included a biological man.
I will be forever grateful to La Leche League.
In 1975 I had my first child which due to circumstances I received an injection immediately after her birth to stop my milk production & believed I couldn’t breastfeed. In her first weeks I had a strong desire to breastfeed. When my baby was a few weeks old I remember reading in a copy of The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding (I can’t remember how I came by this book) that I could’ve breastfed anyway by encouraging my milk supply. This is how I learned about La Leche League in New Zealand & the book The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding.
While expecting my 2nd child I obtained my own copy of that book & ultimately nursed him until he was about 10.5 months old. He didn’t ever have a bottle, once he was weaned he drank from a cup.
10 years later I was expecting my 3rd child & started attending local La Leche League meetings when I was about 4 months gestation. I learnt as much as I could through books & the meetings & friendships & that child was breastfed until he was 3.5 years old which was great for him but also I reaped many benefits physically & emotionally.
To have experience of both bottle feeding & a longer period of breastfeeding has given me a wealth of personal experience which has helped me to support other mothers at different times in my life.
💖💖💖💖💖✊🏽♀️♀️♀️♀️
amazing episode. Helen is so brilliant. Thanks so much. I breastfed all three of my kids each for one year. it’s indescribable how much it meant to me and it was extremely difficult at times! I used a lactation consultant the second time and her help was invaluable. The hospital where I gave birth didn’t encourage or help me. They wheeled a breast pump into the room and left… I have been horrified to see La leche league caving to this movement. It seems obvious that the men who want to do this are clearly motivated by a fetish- and self validation. An honest scientific/molecular evaluation of whatever this secretion is that they are trying to pass off would be great and could expose this farce for what it is. . I will miss your podcast! Thank you Sasha and Stella so much for your work! Wishing you all the best in your future endeavors and Merry Christmas to you both.
The drugs they have to use in order to 'lactate' are also potentially very harmfull for the baby.
Doctors already know this !!!!!
It is medical malpractice!
Marian Tompson has discovered the fountain of youth. She is remarkable.
I was thinking that too. Amazing energy and smart response to walk out..
If this carried on like this the next generation will have no idea of basic realities we've taken for granted.
I can't believe this is the first time.
What other basic realities were known to previous generations but written out of our history?
Previous generations weren’t insane like today.
That is one reason why every history movie is wrong.
They’ll become “old wives tales” distorted and disparaged. A great loss to women.
Helen is a joy. I love her.
I was a LLL leader for 21 years. It was such an honor to help moms and babies in that way. I teared up through this whole interview- to see her speak again now! Marion Thompson was and is such an inspiration to me. I’m sad at how the organization has lost its footing.
Remember when a well-known baby formula brstfeed-substitute company (begins with N, french-sounding) got busted in Africa for getting new mothers to use their products instead of the real natural thing?
Kinda feels that something like that is happening again, over here.
Of course the baby won't get nutrients from dad, so will need to be supplemented with baby formula food-like products.
Why is that obvious interest conspicuous by it's absence from discussions on this topic?
Excellent point. There is definitely monetary advantage to the whole transgender movement and this is another spin off. Thanks for this.
Excellent point. Thanks for pointing this out.
Domperidone helps men lactate with palpitations as one of the side effects. If a grown man’s heart starts palpitating, what does it do to a baby’s heart?
Yes I'll never forget what they did or ever buy any of their products. They killed so many babies as formula was often mixed with unsafe water and parents went broke having to keep buying formula. Child labour in their coffee and chocolate too!
It's always absent...the new normal: I just read a few weeks ago that rates of breastfeeding here in Australia have plummeted to 15% 🫣
Very important topic and information. The world is becoming such an irrational, dark place. Thanks for this work
What has happened to this woman and her organization is absolutely unconscionable. There is a special place in hell for the people who made this happen.
Not just the ‘people’ who made this happen - the WOMEN who made this happen. What is wrong with them?
Thank you to my mother in Heaven for breast-feeding all of us (5 children born in 56 through '70) -- I believe we are healthier than we would have been otherwise.
It's amazing how children are being abused, inconveivable.
They can't speak, and crying was often considered a way to strenghten the lungs...
In linguistics they use "gender" as a grammatical device of setting certain article before the noun. "The" in English sounds the same, regardles of the gender: the stallion (he), the mother (she), the house (it) - but French has to decide between le (male) and la (female) and in German you have even 3 versions, that have litte regard to the actual sex of whoever is described by a nound (girl is a neuter-noun...) AND there is the concept of "false friends" - if a familiar sounding word has a totally different meaning in a different language. Then you always get it wrong, because your own background leads you to support activists that stole the language you grew up with. SO you vote for something that goes 180° against your own interests, because you were fooled by their twisted change of meaning. Once MAN was the word for all humans (women being only this extra-cathegory, which was considered too emotional, too irrational and too weak to make decisions on their own). Now, that womanhood has gained more status and some privileges to balance out the risk of pregnacies, all the other grifters without that specific risk want to be granted women's rights, scholarships and "safe places". All this because ALL humans LEGALLY having the same rights. Those "same rights before the law", were introduced to ask judges to disregard the differences between humans, while applying the the existing "rules of fairness" - if at work, the same payment for the same job --- if you inherit something, being a son or a daughter should not matter. BUT if you go to the toilet, you don't want to be disturbed by the other sex (SAME issue for both sexes), if you have to undress or get changed, you do not want the other sex oogeling you up and making disrespectful comments about you. This also goes for both sexes - you need a place to retreat to, if the world gets too much on you. Men just want to relax and not to be forced walking on eggshells all the time. Women would like to gossip freely - without men getting aggressive over their venting. The bad manners in the internet forums are a direct result of the vanishing opportunities of personal interactions😝
Merry Christmas everyone.
This woman is a treasure. I'm so sorry she has had to witness the overtaking of this organization.
I got some information from them while still pregnant, back in the 90s. It was VERY helpful back then...
66 yr old retired RN, IBCLC - I gave up my certification a few years ago - so many of the conferences were “inclusion” orientation I couldn’t deal with it anymore ! Only biological women can breastfeed and I have always said that this chestfeeding epidemic was anti woman !
It is a devastating thought that women destroyed such an important group that supports and protects both mothers and their babies. Unbelievable and so sad
🎉The key statement from this interview was the comments about the position of the baby who expects nourishment and is receiving no such thing. I imagine there would be a lot of grief and frustration from the baby put in this position. This is exploitation bordering on sadism. Thank you for exposing it.
I am so sorry that this happened. La Leche League really helped my mother and of course me as a child.
Once upon a time mothers were supported & advised (often instructed) by their mothers, aunties, grandmothers, cousins, community etc.
When & how did it change that mothers do whatever the Doctor / Hospital tells them to do in regards to their own baby?
Through the 1940s to 1960s Western doctors, particularly in the USA, thought that we could deny our animal nature. Manufacturers of baby formula created huge profits by discouraging breastfeeding; they did this by presenting it as disgusting and less healthy for the child. Again, in the USA, women's breasts were fetishized as objects for men's sexual pleasure rather than as organs for nurturing children. No doubt there were lots of other factors, but those would be the main ones.
When the quacks and "surgeons" took over midwifery. Read Gulliver's Wife, a novel that gives great snippets of insight to the hostility of powerful men who made dreadful changes
I had my three kids between 2006 and 2013 so I was incredibly lucky I didn't have to spend pregnancy or maternity pandering to men larping as women. La Leche league helped me a lot with my first baby. Every mother deserves the same if they need it. A very straightforward process for which straightforward and simple language is required.
I've been a big fan of your podcast all along but how meaningful to stumble upon this episode tonight while I'm awake cluster feeding my 3 week old ❤️
❤💖💖💖💖💖💖✊🏽♀️
Love listening intelligent women discussing incredibly important topics ❤
As a sidenote, currently partaking in an intriduction to supporting breastfeeding mothers as a side course to my physical therapy studies. I truly wish to be able to help women and especially mothers in my future career ❤
Helen is going to go down in history as one of the most important women's rights advocates in our era. Like our Susan B Anthony. I could listen to her for hours. Ive listened to her audiobook several times bc she narrates it. I admire her so much.
I’ll never forget my histology professor, a Christian brother, thundering “ human milk is for human babies, cow’s milk is for calves.” I decided that day in college to breastfeed my future children, and I am proud to have nursed my three children. I am even prouder that my daughter nursed her daughter for a year and is now nursing her infant son. There is nothing in the world knowing that the milk a mother produces is specific for her child at that specific point in time.
But now "Human milk" takes on a whole new meaning. 🤦🏽♀️🤬
Marion is an absolute love. I enjoyed the interview greatly even though the topic itself (men wanting to breastfeed babies) is utterly maddening.
Divorced man here: I will forever be grateful to my ex-wife for breastfeeding our twins.
What a privelege to hear an interview with such a groundbreaking pioneer of womens empowerment ❤️
Thank you for the clarity of this interview.I can’t be the only interested woman/mother who is deeply concerned that the shift of language this involves is damaging to babies. As responsible societies we surely have to prioritise babies’ safety above everything .The developmental window is short and urgent.If there is no clear understanding that early years are crucial in human development,we have reached catastrophic moral decline.
Im a simple woman. I see Helen Joyce, I watch. She's my personal hero and the most inspiring and brilliant woman engaging on this issue.
When Marian rambles at the end, oh my heart, I love elderly women. So much wisdom and history, no matter what random order it comes out in.
Re: have La Leche League Leaders been asked what they think about including males....
There have been surveys sent out, but there's never been an anonymous one.
And there is intense bullying of anyone who voices any type of dissent.
breastfeeding is from mum to infant end of story .let's not give the lies fuel
I am a gay man with a complicated relationship with women. Let's say we don't always get along. But when I listen to women like you discuss being mothers and breastfeeding, I am IN AWE. You are magical creatures. I really need to appreciate you more. BTW, I am my mother's 15th child, and we were all breastfed.
15th?!🙀
I dont always get along with them either and I am one. Lol So heart felt!. We all gotta get out there together and fight for women's sex based rights..
And she married a supportive man!
@@user-rv7ph1jl5y Yes she did
There was so much in this podcast. Thanks for this. Godspeed Marian Tompson
7 children! Thank you for bringing new life into the world.
To all mothers, we love you.
Helen refers to her mother's words "the bottle was liberation from the tyranny of the baby".
That sends a shiver down my spine.
In those days, in Ireland, it was very normal to have large families, 7,8,9, even ten kids.
With half a dozen young kids already to look after, the demands of a brstfeeding baby might seem too much for a busy mother.
That's a faaaar cry from today when the diminishing number of Wmn in the west who choose to have a baby, often only have one, or maybe two.
That's not a fair comparison to the days of Helens mother.
Where is everyone else to help mum with the domestic tasks then? If you have 9 kids, your 9th through 7th can surely help out. Especially in those days. Mum has a priority obligation to her newborn - for the newborn's sake. Shame on everyone else (father, and rest of the family) letting mum flounder and neglect the baby in favour of domestic chores.
@unreadlibrarian father working down the mining pit or something equally hazardous facing mortal danger, seeing his work colleagues deleted from workplace accidents, privileged wmn on TH-cam saying he should have done the dishes & laundry 🙄
It is far easier to BF with multiple kids than bottle feed.
Marian, I applaud your efforts to keep the integrity of LLLI.
I feel such gratitude for the pioneering effort of the 7 founders. I nursed all four of my children, I became a leader while #2 was an infant. My 3 daughters nursed their babies. I couldn't convince my daughter-in-law to nurse, what a shame. I hope to pass my wisdom to my grandchildren to breastfeed their children.
This nonsense has to stop. Women give birth, women breastfeed, that's it.
Wonderful interview. I was unable to feed my 4 children back in the 60's,apart from 1 month with number2. I have always felt sad about this, but am thrilled that my 3 daughters all managed brilliantly.
I breastfed my 3 children in the 90’s and early 2000’s and studied really hard to become a leader. I led meetings, did phone and house calls and improved the lives of women and their children. It is beyond insulting what is going on…when will we women have the pride and self confidence to say, yes, we are the experts on this and we deserve a space of our own to do this and help fellow women?!?
The whole idea of wrong body is based in the original sexism. Some say oh well there was trans people 1000 years ago. There was males should be this way and females should be that way a thousand years ago also.
Surely the idea that anyone can be born in the wrong body has to be based in a kind of dualism. Of course many human belief systems and religions do seem to take this kind of perspective, however it's not in any way necessary, in my view, to a comprehensive understanding of the human condition, in fact I think it hinders a comprehensive understanding... Merry Christmas!
Here in the USA in the 40"s, 50"s and 60"s the formula was sold at the doctors' offices, so they had an incentive to sell the formula and stop women from breastfeeding. Follow the money.
They are still doing all kinds of insidious sh!t to undermine breastfeeding.
I wasn't able to breastfeed and I wish I could've. Breast milk is best, but formula is a good, albeit expensive substitute and I'm glad it's an option. So, don't despair if you can't. My daughter turned out fine and she breastfeeds her child. So, if you truly can't, don't despair.
I grew up in LLL. We formed life long bonds with the families.
This capture is so tragic as it will lead to a drop in breastfeeding rates. 😢
Your channel consistently has THE BEST discussions on this topic. Brava, ladies!
Thank you, Ladies!!! Marian and Helen for this lovely, inspiring conversation, Stella and Sasha for making it possible. This is one very nefarious agenda, creeping in everywhere. It says so much that no one can point to how La Leche League got captured by this ideology.
Today the medical health industry is telling us that men can brstfeed. That seems an odd departure.
Yesterday the medical health industry told us mothers should not brstfeed.
Throughout history mothers have brstfed.
How & when did this transform into the medical health advice for mothers to not brstfeed?
When the wealthy believed it was beneath them. Then when nestle invented formula to sell 😞
Breastfeeding comess in fashionwaves, changing every other generation - sometimes it gets encouraged, the BEST thing you could do your child, sometimes it is considered even dangerous, because of all the insecticides accumulating in the food the mother ate all her life... An ancestor born in 1888 got the bottle quite early in his life (there is a holiday diary, where his father was looking for milk at a train-station for his 10 months old son). Mothers always get disregarded for their effords - breastfeeding puts them near animals? But if they can't feed their babies, some other source of nourishment had to be found... (Milk of cows or other lifestock is not ideal for human children - every mother has the right milk for exactly the offspring of her own species).
Resaurants reserved a chair to "breastfeed in private" in their restrooms - so you feed and change your children next to the toilets, where everybody is allowed to relieve themselves now, while you try to feed the child.THAT is unhygenic, like giving yourself a shot on the toilet, because of diabetis, just because other customers might be offended by you attending to your medical needs. But at least they will warm up the bottles you brought along, to feed the baby without exposing parts of your body. If you are very lucky and have too much milk, you might get this out, bottle and freeze it, just to be used later. There are some hospitals even collecting milk of donating mothers, just to feed the babies, whose mothers don't have enough for them...
I believe that fathers should be given the chance to breast feed in order to alleviate the burden on mothers and bond with their children. Men are physically capable of producing milk with the right conditions.
@@graceg3250 No
@@gisellemagraibhaigh8342. I think the big push to bottle feed got going in the 1920s. Doctors and nurses both discouraged breastfeeding, so the medical profession removed breastfeeding from women. La Leche brought it back and now the medical and nursing professions, and hospitals, are pushing it hard. Thank you La Leche. La Leche also had really good nutrition teaching and sold cookbooks, like Mothers in the Kitchen, and Whole Foods for the Whole Family. I never forgot their common sense teaching of nutrition.
I would listen to Helen reading a shopping list, she’s got such a fabulous calming voice. She’s such a great advocate for women and I’m grateful for her work, and to both of you too, Stella & Sasha! ❤
Wonderful interview! Perfectly suited for the Christmas season!
You ladies..are wonderful!....
Two remarkable and inspiring women. The fortitude and stoicism of Marian is astounding.
What a fabulous interview with a very wise woman. LLL helped me immensely nearly 40 years ago and I went on to become a Leader. I recently wrote to our local branch at how disappointed I was that a nearby group were no longer using the word woman. Sadly I never had an acknowledgment. Breaks my heart what has happened to LLL.
Sounds like the baby formula makers did a good job of convincing idiot doctors their product was better than what women have been produced since before we were even human ffs. Listening to this is insane.
I remember when I had my first daughter there was a real movement starting to promote breastfeeding in the hospitals and mothers groups but even in 2007 it hadn’t caught on in the community. Many older ladies including my partners mum thought I was crazy.
Get this his mum said, with a sour look on her face “ I couldn’t imaging having a baby latched onto my boobs”. Not surprisingly we are not close.
Amazing, Marian! Brave and intelligent women guiding the Drs. How real is that? I remember how important Leleche was for me too having my first in 1990. My whole family was upset as were most people who knew I was breastfeeding. I was grateful to learn that other women were also breastfeeding mainly thanks to Mother Jones mag for publicizing and writing about laleche. What an absolute scandal the trans phenomena has created. Such a shame but at the same time truly a perfect end of the year episode!
That's really insane... who ever heard of a breast feeding family? It's nonsense.... 😢
Best podcast in ages. Should have this new host all the time.
What women does it for themselves and doesn't do it for the baby?
If I have a happy baby that does not cry so much and lets me sleep through the night, THAT is egotistical of me, because I don't want to be disturbed too often by that child 😇🥰
A very moving discussion. Thank you 😢
I will be forever grateful to LLL. Thanks to LLL, I was able to relactate after my milk dried up by the time my first baby was 4 months old. Thanks to LLL I was able to breastfeed all my children until well past 1 year. I went on to become a LLL leader myself and then eventually a Board-Certified Lactation Consultant. I'm retired now and it breaks my heart to see what is happening to LLL now. Thank you, Marian Thompson, for all that you have done. God Bless you!
I left birth work six or so years ago because the push to be "inclusive" was becoming so strong. Midwifery Today also got push back around this issue around that time. Its bizarre.
La Leche was around in the US in the 60s, as I recall. My mother knew of them, and there were lots of Hippy adjacent women like her who breast fed because it was natural. These mothers rejected baby food too, and made their own with mashed bananas and veggies etc. Breast milk is also cost effective, I think. So, there was a "conspiracy" (already recognized in the 6os) about getting women to buy formula or whatever because it costs $. Same with the push to do away with cloth diapers.
Saves you money throughout life, not just because you dont have to buy a lot of products. Bf babies are also healthier and more intelligent. It benefits all of humanity.
@@pinwheelart2825 100%
Inspiring. Thank you and Happy Birthday! 💖
Thank you for another awesome episode happy birthday Marion and merry xmas to you all
💖🇦🇺
Helen Joyce is so amazing!
All those Wmn who stood down from the organisation were handing it over. Deliberately.
I wonder if any money changed hands
Heartbreaking.
Respect from Class and Culture films
Wonderful, important interview.
Where do we find you both as you move on to different work ladies? ❤
Please follow us on Substack and we’ll continue to update everyone there! Go to Widerlenspod.com ❤
Helen, we need you ❤❤❤❤
I'm really sad that something that's seemed so obvious to me for over 20 years went backwards in acceptability from the 20 years before. keep up the worthwhile work! You all know that no one else will of women don't.
This episode is incredibly special
what insanity
What a lovely woman. Happy Birthday.
💖💖💖
At 55 minutes she nails it, women being erased. That's what is going on.
❤❤❤ awesome Women!
So pleased that Helen pronounced 'Chicago' like someone from Chicago!
As with everything, it differs. I have two children, one young adult and one in the worst throes of teenages),
and I breastfed them with huge difficulty, especially the first, which I believe is common enough
(enormous breasts, barely any milk, no matter how I tried), and topped it up with formula.
My dad, who despite a lifelong stretch of illnesses and conditions lived to 90,
was brought up on "formula" (or, as he put it, "something that your grandmother concocted"
- I don't know how much formula there was to be had in the early 1930''s), so I knew, intellectually,
that being fed at all is more important than being fed what Nature means for you to be fed with,
but it is only a few years ago since I stopped crying whenever I thought of my "failure" as a mother.
In my country, we can get help with breastfeeding at both hospitals (by experienced midwives)
and by charities. Sadly, I med a lot of "you don''t try hard enough" from the charities,
while the midwife who helped me and who saw my desperation said that sometimes
it does not matter how hard we try (and I tried desperately, I even left home for a couple of weeks
to concentrate on breastfeeding - which only resulted in having LESS milk) - sometimes it does not work,
and in those cases it is better to give up than to do as I did (i.e. to beat myself up for the failure
and live with the worst sides of breastfeeding AND formula - not being able to leave the kid
AND having to bring formula wherever I went) and settle with formula.
My mother (who breastfed her children) and my sister (who breastfed all but her first
- she tried hard, but it did not work) begged me to give up, but I couldn't.
While simultaneously seeing that I ought to.
❤
Breastfeeding must be good for aging too. Marian doesn't look a day over 65!
24:30
I went to one meeting of La Leche League 7 years ago and it was a dud. Even then the organization seemed already quite captured/dogmatic in the non-nuanced and pressured way of presenting information. The leader, who is a lactation consultant, was wonderful, but ultimately I didn't trust the other sleep-deprived neurotic Berkeley crunchy new moms to have good advice. Especially when there was a lot of flippant judgement passed on other mothers.
Look at the sma documentary, the begining of the industry of powdered milk , you will be surprised
I like Helen Joyce's happy face as Marian Tompson recalls how she started this thing.
(I dislike, though, the (typically American) misplaced prudishness that made it impossible to say "breastfeed!".
And, while I commend Tompson for what she has done, I do not believe LLL changed
"the world's" perception of breastfeeding. The US's - yes. The world's - no.
LLL is completely unknown (I first heard of it in connection with Tompson's stepping down)
in many parts of the world (also industrialised, like my country) where breastfeeding has never been out of vogue.)
So many thoughts. You can have the exact same values about family as someone brreastfeeding
and still be unable - for physiological reasons or any other reason - to breastfeed yourself.
As I wrote at another place in this comment section, I breastfed only partially and with great difficulty,
but I nursed both children until they themselves said it was enough (at 15 and about 12 months respectively)
because the urge from inside to try to what would be best best for them was so strong.
And bottle feeding does not create depressed children. My sister's first child was breastfed
for only three months, and then bottle fed (the rest of the siblings ware breastfed),
but that instead increased his bond with his grandmother and with, me,
who both took care of him regularly. it is not black or white., and bonding does not come
from feeding the child from your breast but from communicating with the child,
which you can do over both he boobs and the bottle.
And nest to air, water and food, bonding is the most important thing for the baby.
I’ll bet you ALL voted against your own self interest, as well.
Tell me you voted democrat without telling me you did such a traitorous thing to us all.
This happens regardless of which party is ruling. Look outside the USA, it's happening everywhere , under conservative or left/"progressive" governments. They're taking their cue from the US, that much is true , as the cultural pacemaker.
It is the elites money not political parties. They are paying off whoever is in office. Just look at ol' Brucey with the repubs. People need to realize this, or you will only be in for a rude awakening soon.
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