Friends of La Leche League - Friends of La Leche League

Welcome!

Friends of La Leche League (formerly the LLL Alumnae Association) invites you to browse our site and learn more about our organization.

Let’s connect if you are:

an active or retired La Leche League Leader
a current or former La Leche League member
breastfeeding
a parent of a child from toddler to teen to adult
a grandparent
an advocate for breastfeeding!

**To join or renew your membership, please click here.**

2025 Mini-Grants Funded

Friends of LLL awarded over $22,000 to thirteen projects from eight countries: Cuba, Dominican Republic, Paraguay, South Africa, Morocco, New Zealand, England and the United States of America. Requirements were that the projects either be submitted by an LLL Leader or have a letter of recommendation written by an LLL Leader or Friends of LLL member. These projects were:

A health professional and parent educational event in Morocco, with donated copies of The Art of Breastfeeding for a breastfeeding resource center and translation of material into Moroccan Arabic
Outreach to expectant and new parents in the Chattanooga, Tennessee, USA area with flyers distributed to local healthcare providers offices, hospitals and new parents’ welcome bags
A brunch in Vero Beach, Florida, USA for National Breastfeeding Month welcoming breastfeeding families, LLL members, LLL Leaders, lactation and healthcare professionals where copies of The Art of Breastfeeding were distributed to expectant and new mothers
LLL New Zealand Alumnae Association to attract new members prior to their Area Conference
A breastfeeding room for those with asylum or refugee status, migrant, or unhoused where they are safe and have privacy to feed their children or express milk; The Art of Breastfeeding as well as children’s books and toys are available there, as well, supported by LLL Widnes and St. Helens, England
Free Little Libraries featuring The Art of Breastfeeding, as well as other books with LLL contact information inside them, with a kickoff picnic by LLL Canonsburg/Cecil, Pennsylvania, USA
Financial assistance for Gwyneth Jacobs, South African LLL Leader, developer of the LLL South Africa Facebook page, to attend the International Congress of LLL IAN in Lima, Peru; she will share knowledge, inspiration and ideas gained there with other Area Leaders
A mini-conference by The Breastfeeding Center in coordination with LLL Montgomery County East, Pennsylvania, USA with CERPS offered and open to lactation professionals as well as LLL Leaders
Supporting Paula Rodriguez Arredondo, LLL Leader from the Dominican Republic to participate in the LLL IAN International Conference in Lima, Peru; she has committed to accrediting at least three new Leaders in the six months following the award and will train as a Communication Skills Facilitator; additionally, she is organizing a public event to celebrate thirty-five years of LLL Republica Dominicana
Assisting Zulma Graciela Chera Ramirez, LLL Leader in Paraguay, in her efforts to create and translate culturally sensitive breastfeeding content in the Guarani language, widely spoken throughout Paraguay, and currently without breastfeeding resources
Funding for a screening of the “Chocolate Milk” documentary about Black breastfeeding, sponsored by LLL Leaders of Savannah, Georgia, USA in conjunction with Healthy Savannah, follow up meetings after the screening and The Art of Breastfeeding copies given to forty pregnant or nursing mothers attending the screening, plus 24 copies of TAB donated to the twelve branches of the Savannah Public Libraries
Micelys Torres Sanchez, LLL Leader from Havana, Cuba, plus two Leader Applicants were given assistance to participate in the LLL IAN International Conference in Lima, Peru with plans to educate other Cuban Leaders
Community screening of “Chocolate Milk” during Black Maternal Health Week in Nebraska, USA with Q&A following with local lactation professionals and advocates, a raffle for three copies of The Art of Breastfeeding, and a raffle for a partial scholarship for a B.L.A.C.K. Certified Lactation Consultant course

Join Us at a Friends of LLL Chat

Do you miss the sense of community you felt at LLL Series Meetings or Leader/Leader Applicant Days? Every month, members of Friends of La Leche League meet online for a discussion on an interesting topic in a warm, relaxed, and caring atmosphere.

Our monthly Chats are a popular benefit of membership, and a great way for members to get to know new people, stay in touch, and support each other. We welcome first-time participants to attend a Chat and see if they like it before joining Friends of LLL. Please contact Jo-Anne if you would like to volunteer to lead a discussion. Information about each month’s Chat and details about how to register are published each month on our website News Page.

Honoring LLL Friends

For more than twenty years, Friends of La Leche League has honored deceased LLL Leaders through the “We Remember” program. Leaders are listed on our website by name and year of death. A ceremony in which the Leaders names are read was initiated at the 2001 LLL International Conference and has been held at conferences and Friends of LLL trips since then. To honor all deceased Leaders, we urge Friends who learn of the death of any LLL Leader to pass along information using this “We Remember” Form.

Friends of LLL also wants to honor all individuals who have inspired us. Our Tributes page includes personalized tributes honoring special people. Tributes are posted on our website for one year and included in Continuum magazine. You can write a tribute honoring someone important to you by using this form.

The “Honors” option on our main menu provides direct access to the “We Remember” and Tributes pages and forms. Friends of La Leche League is proud to honor those who have inspired us.

Membership

For $30 per year (or $75 for three years), Friends of La Leche League members receive our online newsletter Continuum. Members are also eligible for members’ events (like our monthly chats) and discounts on registration fees for Friends of La Leche League trips. To join or renew your membership, please join here.

Donations

Friends of La Leche League welcomes donations that fund our operations or specifically to support our Mini-Grants program. If you would like to make a donation, please donate here.

Tributes

Friends of La Leche League tributes provide you the opportunity to honor Friends, colleagues, family, mentors, or cherished friends. Tributes appear in our members’ newsletter, Continuum and are published on the website for one year. Please see our current tribute listings.

Annual tributes are just $20 each. If you wish to honor someone special to you, please make a tribute here.

YouTube Channel

Videos created by Friends of LLL can be viewed on the Friends of La Leche League YouTube channel which you can access here.

Facebook Feed

Friends of La Leche League

2 hours ago

DR JACK NEWMAN ON INTRODUCING SOLIDSDr Jack Newman ON October 10, 2014 Dr Jack Newman posted"There is a lot of talk these days about having to start solids now at four months of age to "prevent allergies", apparently supported by "scientific research". This is a sea-change from even a couple of years ago when the idea was to start solids at six months of age. However the "scientific support" for starting solids at 4 months of age is not as interpreted. If the "scientific data" says anything, it says one can prevent allergies by starting solids at between 4 to 6-7 months, so why does this get interpreted as 4 months? I should say that the "science" is less than convincing. It is obvious that allergy is not due to just one thing (when the breastfed baby starts solids), but a host of environmental factors seem to have a role. Babies should start solids when the are developmentally ready, not by the calendar. The following is an excerpt from my recently revised book, Dr Jack Newman's Guide to breastfeeding.Babies, especially breastfed babies, are pretty amazing. It doesn’t matter how long they generally sleep, they frequently wake up and want to breastfeed when the mother, but not necessarily the father, just sits down to eat. This happens even if the mother and father are not eating at the same time. How do the babies know this? Is there some sort of chemical signal that the mother sends out that says “I’m just about to put the fork into my mouth”? I suppose it’s possible. If pheromones can induce humans to be sexually attracted to each other, why not maternal pheromones that say “it’s time to eat”? There is no scientific proof for this, but the experience of mothers is important and we should listen to them more often.In any case, the result is that babies are often sitting on their mother’s or father’s lap when one or the other is eating. By about four months of age, the baby becomes very interested in what is going on. He will often watch attentively the fork or spoon the mother is using to eat as it moves back and forth from the plate to the mother’s mouth and back again. By five or six months he not only watches, he may try to grab food out of the plate and put it into their mouths. In fact, I have seen babies put their hands into the mother’s mouth to try to take the food out of her mouth. It seems to me that a baby doing this is ready to eat solids whatever his age. Of course, a two month old won’t behave like this, so there is no question, following my approach, of the baby’s being ready to eat solids at two or three months.And if the baby is ready for solids at five months and two weeks of age, why not start the baby eating solids when he’s so interested? And what solids should the baby get when he’s ready? I think it makes sense that the baby of five months and two weeks of age who is trying to grab the piece of steak out of the mother’s plate be allowed to eat that piece of steak. Okay, it can be cut to a reasonable size or shredded, but the same food as the parents eat, with only a few exceptions.Which exceptions? Round, slippery food, such as whole grapes or peanuts are not a good idea. They are often just the size to block the baby’s trachea (breathing tube). Hot dogs present a similar risk. Popcorn has been cited as a food that can be aspirated into the trachea. Also very hot spicy food may be better to avoid for a while as burning the baby’s mouth is probably not a great way to encourage him to eat solids. But that’s about all. Of course, making sure the food is not too hot (in the sense of temperature) is just commonsense and not only for babies or children. There’s often no need to cut the food into small pieces: a baby can hold a broccoli floret in his hand and gnaw away at it, or pick up a pear with two hands and chomp on it.But I have heard the argument that a baby of five or six months will put anything into his mouth, even stones and toys, if he has the opportunity. Yes, this is true and since the parents are usually there when a six month old baby is putting a plastic toy into his mouth, they will usually quickly and anxiously pull the toy out of his mouth. The baby has just learned that toys are not food or at least not to be put into the mouth though they will keep trying from time to time until they really learn. I would suggest, then, that if a baby puts a piece of chicken into his mouth and the parents react in the same way to the chicken as they would to the stone, the baby has just learned that maybe chicken is not food either. "www.facebook.com/DrJackNewman/posts/pfbid02UvnHpkSr5PrLwnLFW5kCwczLUVH19SkuRanmNuzkUhm4M13gQwqyEq... ...

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Friends of La Leche League

9 hours ago

LLLC was honoured to be an exhibitor at the @bfmedicine!#LLLC #exhibitor #abm2026 #breastfeeding #ibclc #breastfeedingmedicine ...

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Friends of La Leche League

23 hours ago

I leaked breast milk in public today, so my husband decided we were going to be embarrassed TOGETHER. 🤣😂This man literally grabbed a napkin, wet it, and dabbed his own nipple so I wouldn't be the only one walking around with a wet shirt. 😭😂❤️But here's why this means so much to me.With our first baby, I only made it four months breastfeeding. I was insecure, struggled nursing in public, and honestly felt pretty alone.This time around, I told my husband I needed him in my corner. And boy, did he show up.From 1 a.m. Walgreens runs for nipple shields to cleaning up my breastfeeding messes and encouraging me when I wanted to quit, he's been my biggest supporter.Does he still get on my last nerve? ABSOLUTELY. 🤣But today reminded me that breastfeeding support isn't always some big, grand gesture.Sometimes it's a grown man voluntarily giving himself a fake breast milk stain just so his wife doesn't feel alone. 😂❤️Here's to the breastfeeding dads who understand that they might not be the ones making the milk, but they can make ALL the difference. 🥹❤️ ...

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Friends of La Leche League

23 hours ago

I can't even get home from work and change my clothes before these two are demanding BOOBIES! 😂😭And taking turns? HA! Absolutely not. They want it NOW! 🤣My son is over here gently rubbing the boob like, "Mmmm, gotta cherish the boobie." 🥹❤️Meanwhile, my daughter is SMACKING hers like, "HELLO?! CAN WE SPEED THIS UP?!" 💀🤣Two babies. Two completely different personalities. One mama who's apparently never off the clock. 😂And YES, you can literally see my daughter's little hand in action! 😭🤣Breastfeeding mamas, does your baby RUB, SLAP, TWIDDLE, or straight-up FIGHT the boob like it owes them money?! 😂👇 ...

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Friends of La Leche League

23 hours ago

✨ A doula's job isn't to make sure birth goes perfectly. Our role is to make sure families don't feel alone if things don't go as planned. Sometimes, our role means supporting an unmedicated birth.Other times it means helping someone feel comfortable requesting an epidural.There are times we are offering reassurance during an unexpected induction or cesarean when a medical complication arises. But often, our role is simply sitting quietly beside someone who needs a moment to process what's happening.Good doula support isn't measured by specific birth outcomes. Good support means consistent presence that ensures someone doesn't feel alone or unsupported. 👇🏽 Doulas, what's one moment when you realized your presence mattered more than anything you could say or do?#IDIdoula #Doula #Pregnancy #Birth #DoulaTraining ...

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