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Ruth Lewis recalls the precise moment she made the decision to oppose the breastfeeding charity she had volunteered for for over ten years.
She claims that in the summer of 2023, she was requested to remove an article that utilized “mother-centered language” from Breastfeeding Matters.
The main magazine for the British branch of the La Leche League, a nonprofit organization founded to assist mothers in breastfeeding.
In keeping with the charity’s decision to allow men who identify as women to attend meetings, she was counseled to substitute it with an article written by a breastfeeding group leader that used more gender-neutral language.
Lewis, 49, claims that the article’s closing sentence about “supporting parents with infant feeding choices” was the last straw.
“That isn’t what we do,” I just thought. I quit because I could no longer stand this. She had no idea, however, that her choice to leave would land.
Her in the middle of a fierce battle over breastfeeding support groups for transgender women (or biological guys, to put it another way), which would ultimately result in her termination from the organization.
Given that La Leche League is the oldest breastfeeding organization in the world, having been established in 1956 by a group of American moms to assist women who were having difficulty nursing their infants, the controversy has garnered special attention.
“Nuestra Senora de la Leche y Buen Parto” (Our lady of bountiful milk and good delivery) is a historical representation of the nursing Virgin Mary that inspired the name. Using the term “breast” in public was just unacceptable at the time the charity was founded.
However, Lewis claims that after more than 70 years, the word “breast” has once again become offensive in certain parts of the organization, but for very different reasons.
According to her, “ideologues” are “destroying La Leche League from within” because they think it is discriminatory for a nursing organization to only serve biological females and that calling transgender persons “breast” or “mother” would insult them.
Considering her continued affiliation with the organization, the mother of two does not make such accusations lightly.
Lewis was chosen as a trustee a few months after leaving her position as editor, determined to overhaul the organization from the top down.
But on November 16, she and five other trustees of La Leche League GB (LLLGB), who make up half of the British leadership council.
Were unanimously voted out at the charity’s Annual General Meeting, ending her attempts to retain La Leche League sessions exclusively for women.
According to Lewis, individuals who lost their jobs had just been campaigning for moms to have a place where other women could support them.
As they nurse their children, at a time when many feel most vulnerable. However, she adds that the previous trustees were demonized as transphobic and expelled for having the audacity to advocate.
That trans women who had used medicines to induce breastfeeding should not be allowed to attend these delicate feminine events.
Lewis claims, “We have been depicted as being anti-trans and anti-inclusion, but this is about sex, not gender identity.”
Naturally, we would assist a trans man—a woman who identifies as male—who need assistance with nursing and has not had a mastectomy.
However, when we discussed the inclusion of trans women who want to nurse, those people are male because.
Whether you like it or not, being a trans woman is only possible if you were born male. Additionally, a significant portion of women will self-exclude from support groups if men are permitted to attend.
“I’m talking about vulnerable mothers who have just given birth and are still in pain from breastfeeding, Muslim women who refuse to undress or breastfeed in front of a man, and women who have been in abusive relationships.”
[The leadership of the charity] claims that this is about showing kindness, but I don’t see it that way. “Delighting in adult fantasies”.
Lewis and the other trustees were ejected from office at the end of a turbulent year that also saw them lose their certification to conduct breastfeeding groups from La Leche League International (LLLI), the international branch of the American organization.
Amidst accusations of bullying, Miriam Main, another trustee who had supported them on the trans women issue, felt forced to step down at the start of this month.
The 94-year-old founder of the charity, Marian Tompson, resigned a few weeks ago, calling the decision to accept trans women “indulging the fantasies of adults.” This was even more startling.
Lewis expresses her profound sadness that the fight to keep British breastfeeding clubs a place where only biological females may find safety and support seems.
To have come to an end in this way. “It’s heartbreaking that it’s been twisted, because it was set up so perfectly for mothers supporting mothers,” she adds.
Lewis’s departure from the organization brought an end to her more than 15-year affiliation with La Leche League.
Which started when she and her three-month-old daughter attended a breastfeeding support session at the local library.
She soon established herself as a regular at the meetings, and when asked if she would want to take charge of the events, she gladly accepted.
“As so many LLL leaders talk about, it just feels right for a lot of moms to use the biology that we’ve got as a way to mother,” Lewis says, reflecting on the charity’s appeal in its early years.
“I felt compelled to comply.” But worries began to surface in 2019 as she changed her focus from chairing meetings to writing the LLLGB’s Breastfeeding Matters magazine.
Lewis observed that some volunteer leaders were using terms like “breastfeeding families” instead of moms when submitting articles for publication.
According to Lewis, the charity’s contentious policy permitting transgender women to join its breastfeeding support groups prompted the wording change.
At the time, Helen Lloyd, the chairperson of the LLLGB, was cited as stating that “the world was moving on” and that the organization needed to be more inclusive to stay current.
Lewis claims that “leaders were being encouraged to add gender-neutral terms to their vocabulary.” “I didn’t feel very comfortable with it, but I felt like I had to accept it to a certain degree.”
However, she realized she could no longer stand the shift and gave notice after being requested to swap out the piece on “mothers” with one about “parents” and “infant feeding.”
Lewis describes the rather strange exchange that ensued with the publication’s director, during which she reportedly tried to justify.
The practice of male lactation to feed infants, which is caused by taking birth control hormones and an anti-nausea medication.
“She said there was a lot of research to support it because they use the same [method], which is called the Newman-Goldfarb protocol, to induce lactation just like a mother would,” said Lewis.
“I made the point that trans women have a distinct physiology, and you can’t simply assume that they have the same physiology.
However, she didn’t seem to understand it, which is somewhat alarming. Lewis made the decision to share her concerns about the charity’s agreement to allow biological males to “chestfeed” infants on its volunteer-only Facebook page.
However, the message was quickly taken down when she was accused of being a “discriminatory transphobe.”
Extreme action: Lewis claims that she was persuaded to take more serious measures and try to implement change from the top by running for trustee election because of this “shutting down” of the discourse.
She wasn’t the only one who thought this way; in October of last year, she and several other LLL leaders who shared her views were voted to the organization’s Council of Directors.
They immediately set out to contest, at least in Britain, some of the changes that were transforming the organization, such as the use of gender-neutral terminology and the inclusion of trans women in breastfeeding groups.
According to them, the crucial element was that a company that was founded to assist mothers with nursing seems to have shifted its charity goals to include assistance for men.
However, the new trustees soon found that they were up against a significant obstacle: a minority of trustees who supported the admission of trans women and enlisted the help of La Leche League International (LLLI).
According to Lewis, “they attempted to compel us to accept that trans women were our beneficiaries because they were mothers, inverted commas.”
She asserts that the LLLI board made it clear to the trustees who were challenging the trans policy that they needed to encourage everyone to “breastfeed” or “chestfeed” infants with human milk.
When the board received formal objections about the six LLLGB trustees who were opposed to trans women being admitted by their colleagues trustees on the Council of Directors, the divides were further cemented.
Lewis claims that one of the complaints’ points was that the term “mother” should not be separated from its legal meaning, which is based on the biological role that women play in giving birth to children.
When the six beleaguered trustees chose to share letters they sent to the international board outlining their concerns with the trans policy with.
The more than 200 breastfeeding group leaders nationwide in April of this year, the dispute—which went right to the core of the charity’s mission—finally erupted into the public eye.
The consequences were immediate. In response, La Leche League International suspended the trustees’ authorization to conduct breastfeeding sessions, endangering their positions on the Council of Directors.
At the same time, the six were publicly criticized by other trustees and group leaders who backed the efforts to make the organization “inclusive” of trans women.
The situation only got worse after that. Lewis reported a severe incident to the Charity Commission in May, citing “a breakdown in governance” within the British La Leche League and alleged meddling from the American organization.
Later, the report made its way into the media, which led to their opponents’ unsuccessful attempt to call an emergency general meeting to remove the six trustees from office.
However, Lewis and her affiliated trustees were forced to concede defeat earlier this month after failing to win re-election in a contentious AGM when they were allegedly accused of “gross misconduct” and “conflicts of interest.”
Lewis claims that even though both of these charges were swiftly and completely denied, “once you hear something like that, you can’t unhear it.”
We’ll never be able to tell whether it affected the result. In any event, we lost, which was disappointing as well as somewhat relieving after a year of terrible bullying and stress.
The organization hasn’t entirely abandoned its goal, however, and Lewis is certain that the public would approve the idea of establishing a new charity for moms who nurse just one sex.
“In dozens of communications, not a single one has advocated for the inclusion of men in breastfeeding meetings,” she claims.
“I’m pregnant and I was looking for somewhere for support, but I know I can’t come to you,” other mothers said in emails.
Additionally, medical experts have told us that this is not acceptable. The fact that these moms can no longer seek assistance from the La Leche League is heartbreaking.