La Leche League's Mission

To help mothers to breastfeed through mother-to-mother support, encouragement, information and education, and to promote a better understanding, of breastfeeding as an important element in the healthy development of the baby and the mother.

La Leche League's philosophy is encapsulated in these concept statements and is realised in a practical way in the pages of our world-wide best-seller The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding.

La Leche League believes that breastfeeding, with its many important physical and psychological advantages, is best for both a mother and her baby, and is the ideal way to initiate good parent-child relationships. The loving help and support of the partner enables the mother to focus on mothering so that together the parents develop close relationships which strengthen the family and thus the whole fabric of society.

La Leche League further believes that mothering through breastfeeding deepens a mother's understanding and acceptance of the responsibilities and rewards of her special role in the family. As a woman grows in mothering she grows as a human being and every other role she may fill in her lifetime is enriched by the insights and humanity she brings to it from her experiences as a mother.

La Leche League's purpose is distinct. This singleness of purpose does not prevent interaction with other organisations with compatible purposes, but La Leche League will carefully guard against allying with another cause, however worthwhile that cause may be.


Find out about the history of LLL here.

The seven founders of La Leche League in about 1956