Politics and Breastfeeding: Lactation Industry Misinformation, Monetization, and Politicization

There is goodness in this world, and it is worth fighting for.

It makes sense, that since women have breastfed their babies, 

without any products, without having to pay anyone to learn 

how to nurse, from the beginning of humankind, that women 

should be able to do this today.

It makes sense, that Nature would provide an effective system to 

nourish a baby, that helps to bond the mother to her baby, so that the baby is protected, and which helps to perpetuate our species. 

This system is Natural Breastfeeding, and it is worth fighting for.

See Advantages of Natural Breastfeeding for more information about the amazing gift of breastfeeding.

Sadly, the gift of natural breastfeeding has been tainted by: 

A. misinformation that hinders effective breastfeeding 

B. the monetization of breastfeeding

C. and it has been politicized.

A. Misinformation

This website, www.BreastfeedingSense.com, fully explains how the lactation industry, including the current La Leche League (2024), changed what was taught, from natural breastfeeding techniques, to breastfeeding positions and techniques that create problems. 

And when those problems happen, their response is to sell products and lactation services instead of teaching natural breastfeeding techniques which would solve the problems.

At the same time, lactation language was altered. 

For example, for moms whose breastfeeding falls far short of a natural experience, and ends before they had planned, instead of calling it 'premature weaning,' moms are encouraged to be grateful to have 'reached some of their goals'.

Today we live in a 'Breastfeeding-Haunted' culture, one from which the essence of breastfeeding has been drained, leaving only an empty exterior shell, the form minus the content. 

(Yes, I am paraphrasing Flannery O'Connor's 'Christ-Haunted culture'.)

The essence of breastfeeding, which is to nourish and nurture the baby 

that a mom gave birth to, has been 'drained' by this misinformation.

This has resulted in a great reduction of mothers who can breastfeed naturally and has greatly reduced the number of lactation personnel who know how to teach natural breastfeeding.

To learn about the misinformation being taught see  

Breastfeeding Positions that Hinder / Problems from the Cross Cradle, Football and Log Hold Positions.

For personal stories from mothers who suffered from breastfeeding misinformation see "Mothers' Testimonials".

B. Monetization of Breastfeeding

What used to be taught effectively mother to mother for free, 

is now big business.

From the beginning of humankind, natural breastfeeding techniques were taught mother to mother, for free. Babies thrived and mothers benefitted from 

the many advantages of being a nursing mom. 

In the late 1800's and early 1900's, there was a shift, for many women to go to work outside the home. Reasons for this included women taking over mens' jobs during times of war. 

While this led to bottle and formula feeding, another repercussion was loss of the knowledge of breastfeeding techniques.

In 1956, when bottle feeding was the norm, La Leche League was 

founded to help moms get back to natural breastfeeding techniques.

The organization grew and was in over 40 countries.

For decades, La leche League was applauded and trusted as the premiere resource for natural breastfeeding information. 

La Leche League helped millions of moms to learn how to nurse, for free. 

I was one of them. My own mother's efforts to breastfeed in 1952 were thwarted by poor information when she tried to nurse my older brother. He screamed, she was sore, nobody helped her, so my brother was weaned, and Mom and Dad fed us a homemade formula of condensed milk, corn syrup and water.

I heard about La Leche League from a friend and learned as much as I could so that I would be able to nurse my babies.

The LLL information was, in the 1980's correct. With support from La Leche League, I successfully nursed my 4 children, until they chose to wean. 

The monthly LLL support meetings were helpful for 

moms and children. 

La Leche League was a precious gift.

The 7 LLL Founding Mothers, including Marian Tompson 

and Mary White, were my role models and my heroes.

La Leche League could not be 'sold out' to people who wanted to 

make money from breastfeeding because the 7 Founding 

Mothers protected the truth of natural breastfeeding. 

They would not allow LLL to veer from it. 

The 7 Founding Mothers of LLL and the LLL Leaders lived the 

'goodness of natural breastfeeding' with their families and 

knew that it was worth fighting for.

To qualify to become an LLL Leader, a mother must have 

breastfed her own baby for at least one year, using 

natural breastfeeding techniques. 

Then all LLL Leaders had this shared experience. 

They understood that these techniques worked because they 

had used them and their baby nursed effectively.

The Leaders shared this information, mother to mother, for free. 

And LLLI grew into an organization that was in over 40 countries.

But as time went on, things changed in the lactation world.

Nobody makes money when breastfeeding works out.

Some La Leche League personnel saw a way to make money 

by promoting 'special breastfeeding pillows'. Then they 

started promoting Medela pumps. 

They became lactation consultants and they started 

saying that La Leche League Leaders were not as knowledgeable 

as lactation consultants. 

Those same lactation consultants came into power in LLL, as the 

Founding Mothers got older and less involved with the organization.

They changed what LLL taught about breastfeeding positioning and techniques, to ones that create problems. 

This often results in a product-oriented breastfeeding experience, 

with many mothers weaning much earlier than they had planned.

See Product Cautions    and    Technique Cautions for techniques 

that are causing problems and the products that are being sold 

because of those problems.

Often, this lactation misinformation results in latch on

problems, insufficient weight gain, soreness, and premature weaning.

When these problems arise, products are sold and lactation services 

are sold, but the real solution; the Cradle Hold (or the Lap Nursing Hold) 

along with natural techniques, is not being taught.

This misinformation has resulted in a generation of mothers and lactation personnel who no longer understand how to breastfeed naturally or how to teach others how to breastfeed naturally.

As a former La Leche League Leader, moms suffering with many problems from using the Cross Cradle Hold, contacted me and my co-Leaders for help. 

The moms were doing what they had been taught in the hospital, from lactation consultants, or had learned from lactation literature. 

The moms were using the Cross Cradle or Football Holds.

We helped moms change from using the Cross Cradle Hold or Football Hold, to the Cradle Hold Position. 

We did the follow up and saw the effects of our actions. 

We saw those moms at our monthly La Leche League meetings.

The moms were able to nurse their babies in the Cradle Hold 

position for as long as they and their baby desired.

Moms would often return with subsequent babies, thanking us again 

for our help. They would tell us how easy it was to nurse their 

new baby, from birth, in the Cradle Hold position. 

And while some moms found us or other sources of correct 

natural breastfeeding information, sadly, the vast majority still do not.

Out of love for their babies, moms continue to search for information 

so their babies can have the optimal start in life through breastfeeding 

and so that they can breastfeed comfortably and product-free.

May this website, www.BreastfeedingSense.com, help them and be shared with all.

For stories about the breastfeeding journeys of women who suffered from poor positioning information see "Mothers' Testimonials".

C. Breastfeeding has been politicized, at the expense of 

mothers and babies.

Mom, baby, natural breastfeeding techniques. Yes.

Biological male lactation, baby, synthetic hormones and 

nipple stimulation? Excuse me?

Please, seek truth.

Please recognize that:

-each baby and

-that the breasts a woman has and

-the milk supply that comes in with the birth of her child

-and the baby's natural reflexes that aid in suckling the breast, 

are clear evidence that nature and Nature's God designed 

women to breastfeed their babies.

Please also recognize that biological men cannot become pregnant 

and bear a child, nor do their bodies have a system to produce and 

supply breastmilk.

Nobody is discriminating here, only stating facts.

And while men are not created to breastfeed, fathers have a 

critical role in supporting and protecting the mother and baby.

La Leche League has taught this for decades, and statistics show 

that children are emotionally more stable when they have 

both a loving mother and father in their lives.

Through recent times, breastfeeding has been attacked.

The cows' milk industry marketed their formulas by telling 

mothers and doctors that formula was more scientific and better 

for baby.

 They used their advertising dollars to flood the new baby media 

with pictures of bottle feeding babies.

Currently they advertise formula 'just in case breastfeeding 

doesn't work out', which puts doubts in a new mother's mind 

that maybe she won't be able to breastfeed.

The Nestle company, in the 1970s and 1980s, aggressively 

distributed free formula samples in developing countries in 

Africa, India and Pakistan, which interfered with mothers’ lactation. 

Then families would become dependent on formula since the 

mother's milk supply was compromised by the introduction of formula and bottles.

The formula was often mixed with unhealthy water with resulting 

illness, malnutrition, and death.

Families would need to spend their limited resources on formula, 

often diluting the formula with unhealthy water to stretch the formula, 

instead of breastfeeding which is free.

What did this cost mothers and babies? families? our planet?

Another 'attack' on natural breastfeeding is the current misinformation 

of breastfeeding positions and techniques, which this website explains. 

This misinformation continues to hinder women from effectively breastfeeding.

This website describes the cost to babies and mothers, families and our planet, of this misinformation.

May this website be shared with all.

And now, breastfeeding has been politicized...

In recent years, language changes were made in official LLLI and other lactation literature, such as the term 'mother' being replaced with 

'parent' and 'breastfeed' with 'chestfeed'.

The La Leche League website has a section dedicated to transgender and nonbinary parents.

La Leche League's aim has shifted from 'supporting biological women who want to give their babies the best start in life by breastfeeding them, to include men, who for whatever reason, want to have the experience of breastfeeding.'

LGBT advocates argue that men who believe they are women, are capable of breastfeeding babies by way of taking synthetic hormones and inducing lactation via nipple stimulation. 

Yet there is no careful long-term research on male lactation and how 

that may affect a baby.

Or, how it may affect an older child, watching an adult male trying to 'chestfeed' a newborn.

This is a shift from following the norms of nature, which is the core of mothering through breastfeeding, to indulging the fantasies of adults.

LLLI has notified groups that they must welcome men who wish to 'breastfeed', into their support group meetings.

It would be greatly detrimental to women, and their children, if 

biological men were allowed at LLL support meetings and here is why.

Single-sex spaces for breastfeeding are necessary to protect the 

'mother-baby dyad' - that unique and symbiotic relationship between woman and baby.

At the support meetings moms bare all emotionally and physically. 

Moms learn how to latch a newborn baby onto the breast.

They can talk about their sex life when pregnant and after having a baby,

how they feel about their changing body, 

the physical sensations they experience, 

perineal tears and prolapses, 

pressure to give a bottle; and so much more. 

There are often tears of joy and pain. It is raw and vulnerable, and LLL provides safety and reassurance.

If a biological male was present, many women would not talk about 

these things and hence would not be getting the information they 

need and came to the meeting for. 

If a mom needed latch on help with her newborn, she is probably 

not going to be comfortable with a male watching her, that 

is not her husband.

If a mom is latching on or taking off a baby of any age 

from her breast, she is probably not going to be comfortable 

with a male watching her, that is not her husband.

For some cultures, women are not allowed to breastfeed in 

front of a male.

All these things need to be taken into consideration before 

changing LLL policies to allow men in support meetings.

Actually, since all women on the LLLI board have breastfed 

their own babies and attended LLL support meetings,

they know what goes on at the meetings. 

Yet the LLLI board is still choosing to allow biological men that 

want to 'breastfeed,' at LLL support meetings, at the expense of 

mothers and babies.

What will be the cost to mothers and babies?

How does promoting and enabling theoretical male lactation help women to breastfeed? It doesn't.

It doesn't contribute to LLL's purpose to give information and 

encouragement to all mothers who want to breastfeed their babies.

It does take away resources from LLL that could have been used 

to teach women to breastfeed. 

It is a distraction that has infiltrated LLLI, to the extent that the 

board says you must support male lactation if you want to be leaders. 

And without Leaders, who will help moms to breastfeed?

The LLLI board has chosen to support biological male lactation desires, instead of following LLL's original purpose, to help mothers to naturally breastfeed.

Sadly, La Leche League has become a target of politics.

-As an organization that promoted the family: mother, father, children,

as a good for society,

-as an organization that shared natural breastfeeding information for free, mother to mother, so that all women would have this information, so that they were not dependent on a controlling administration,

-as an organization that protected the innocence of childhood,

-as an organization that teaches how to optimally nourish and nurture

our children through breastfeeding, so children have the healthiest start possible,

-as an organization whose purpose has brought 

more LOVE into the world,

more stability for families, 

improved health for babies and mothers, 

a shared experience for women around the world,

and protection of the earths' resources,

-in a time when children and family are being targeted for evil from all sides, 

it is not surprising that La Leche League was infiltrated and politicized.

While this politicization is the mission of some who are now 

in charge of La Leche League, many in La Leche League disagree.

Two women, Founding Mother Marian Tompson (at age 93), and 

British LLL Council Director Miriam Main, are publicly standing up 

for La Leche Leagues' original purpose. 

Marian Tompson announced that she was resigning from the 

LLLI Board of Directors (November 2024), because the organization 

was becoming a 'travesty of my original intent'. 

She said that she had attempted to change the group's focus as 

one of its board members, but that 'it has become clear that 

there is nothing I can do to change this trajectory by staying involved.' 

Still, Marian leaves the door open to come back when La Leche League returns to its original purpose.

See ‘2 leaders resign from La Leche League over shift to include men in breastfeeding groups', 

Catholic News Agency (CNA), by Daniel Payne, November 14, 2024.

Miriam Main, who served on the council of directors for La Leche League 

in Great Britain, also announced that she was leaving La Leche League.

See 'Frozen out of charity after I said biological men can't breastfeed.' 

Miriam Main, www.thetimes.com / UK, November 17, 2024.

Miriam stated: 'The charitable objectives of La Leche League Great Britain, 

are to 'promote the physical and psychological health of mothers and children through education in the technique of breastfeeding.'

It is my firm conviction that promoting breastfeeding by biological men 

would contravene these objectives.

For raising concerns about the problems of having biological males 

at LLL support meetings and the push to say that biological males 

are capable of breastfeeding babies (by way of taking synthetic hormones 

and inducing lactation via nipple stimulation), Miriam and other Trustees 

were called transphobic and compared to racists and Nazis in online forums.

'The worst part was that the people insulting us were other leaders; people who are supposed to be skilled at dealing sensitively with highly divisive topics and with kind, respectful communication.'

Miriam and other trustees escalated their concerns to the LLL international board in America. 

LLLIs' response was to send an email directly to all LLL Great Britain leaders stating that they were obliged to provide breastfeeding support 'to all nursing parents, regardless of their gender identity or sex'.

'The international board (in America) is standing firm that we must support male lactation and breastfeeding if we want to be leaders.'

'They have demonstrated their power by removing the accreditation of myself and several other leaders, leaving hundreds of women who regularly attend La Leche League meetings bereft of support.'

'The international board has shown that theoretical male lactation trumps the needs of women living in the UK. I believe this is what finally pushed 

Marian Tompson, a 93-year-old American founding mother of LLL, to resign this month.'

'The grief I feel at losing LLL from my life is huge. Until now, it has been easier for leaders to turn a blind eye and carry on doing good work but enough is enough. The time has come for other leaders in Britain to listen to their hearts and decide what to do next.' As of July 2025, natural breastfeeding advocates are taking action in 

Great Britain. 

A group of former Trustees, who were ousted from La Leche League Great Britain for their belief that only women can breastfeed, have launched 

a new support group. The group is for breastfeeding mothers.

It is called Moma Breastfeeding. They have some in-person meetings in England and Wales. 

See:   The Catholic World Report,

'As Breastfeeding Groups Begin Admitting Men, Advocates Launch New Women-Only Effort’, July 12, 2025, by Amira Abuzeid, Catholic News Agency.

Hopefully, more people will stand up for the good of natural breastfeeding, throughout the world....

Isaiah 5: 20

Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil, 

that put darkness for light, and light for darkness, 

that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!