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Article: La Leche League turns 50
- Article from:
- Elm Leaves (Elmwood Park, IL)
- Article date:
- August 15, 2007
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright 2007, Elm Leaves, Pioneer Press. All rights reserved. REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED. (Hide copyright information)
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Nursing mothers, supportive fathers, children newborn and older -- about 200 in all -- gathered July 16 at Wishbone restaurant in Chicago to honor the seven founders of La Leche League, itself born 50 years ago at a church picnic in Franklin Park.
"Breast-feeding was seen as oddball back then. You had to be kind of careful talking about it," said Marian Tompson, now of Evanston, describing her first tentative conversation with fellow La Leche League co-founder Mary White. "There was this wonderful formula available. Nursing just wasn't culturally accepted."
Over the course of several months, Tompson and White quietly identified five other like-minded mothers living in different suburbs north ...