La Leche League Pioneer, Is Dead

Edwina Froehlich, who was inspired to help found La Leche League to support breast-feeding after being told at the age of 35 that she was too old to make breast milk for her baby, died Sunday in Arlington Heights, Ill. She was 93 and lived in Inverness, Ill. Her death followed a stroke two weeks earlier, said her son, Assemblyman Paul D. Froehlich.

Edwina made the controversial decision to forgo giving birth in a hospital in favor of a more natural delivery in her Franklin Park, Ill., home, with an obstetrician attending. At a time when most pediatricians encouraged formula and bottle-feeding and when there were few scientific studies demonstrating the health benefits of breast milk, Mrs. Froehlich chose to breast-feed all of her babies.

In 1956, when Mrs. White and a friend, Marian Tompson, decided to start a community organization to support and educate local breast-feeding mothers, Mrs. Froehlich was one of the first women they approached. Soon, monthly meetings were being held in Mrs. Froehlich’s home, and a new phone line was installed so she could answer questions coming in from mothers across the country, Mrs. White said. “We didn’t have any information,” said Mrs. Tompson, another of the original group of seven La Leche League founders. “There weren’t any books out there, and women just didn’t talk about these things. Only 18 percent of women in the U.S. left the hospital breast-feeding at that time.” As La Leche League of Franklin Park grew, becoming La Leche League International in 1964, Mrs. Froehlich took on additional roles, including serving as assistant executive director for many years and, more recently, as a board member and a member of the Founders’ Advisory Council. Mrs. Froehlich donated her body to the University of Illinois for research; her children think she wanted to continue serving science even after her death.

Bonnie - Edwina was a courageous woman who should be honored for her vision and steadfast beliefs. La Leche League has been instrumental in creating the high numbers of women now breastfeeding in the United States.