La Leche League International Inc

Causes: Health, Health Care

Mission: To help mothers worldwide 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.

Statistics

• LLLI provides over $33 million per year of in-kind services. LLLI reaches well over 300,000 people in 63 countries every month. Approximately 39,000 Leaders have been accredited in the past 44 years. Each LLL Group is attended by an average of 10 women per month, with many Groups attracting 20-30 mothers. LLLI''s Center for Breastfeeding Information (CBI) contains more than 17,000 full-length research studies with more than 300 categories of breastfeeding data and adds over 125 new studies a month. The LLLI Board of Directors includes members from six countries.
• 7 LLLI maintains consultative status with the United Nations Children''s Fund (UNICEF), official working relations with the World Health Organization (WHO), acts as a registered Private Voluntary Organization (PVO) for the Agency of International Development (USAID), is an accredited member of the US Healthy Mothers/Healthy Babies Coalition, and is a founding member of the World Alliance for Breastfeeding Action (WABA)
• LLLI is a member of the Child Survival Collaborations and Resources Group (CORE).

Programs:

LLLI has trained more than 3,000 LLLI Peer Counselors and over 387 Counselor Program administrators

THE WOMANLY ART OF BREASTFEEDING, now in its sixth revised edition, has been published in eight languages and in Braille, and has sold over two million copies since the first edition was published in 1958. The most recently revised edition was in Spanish. LLLI offers information in 32 languages.

Currently, approximately 7,100 accredited Leaders facilitate more than 3,000 monthly mother-to-mother breastfeeding support group meetings around the world LLLI publishes two bimonthly periodicals: NEW BEGINNINGS which is sent to dues-paying members around the world, and LEAVEN which is sent to Leaders. On a quarterly basis LLLI also publishes BREASTFEEDING ABSTRACTS for health professionals and Leaders as well as CONTINUUM, a publication for members of the Alumnae Association.