Breast-feeding isn't as easy as it seems, physically and emotionally. Lori McBride, coordinator of the San Mateo/San Francisco chapter of the Nursing Mothers Counsel, recently spoke with staff writer Tara Ramroop about her organization's efforts to help breast-feeding become a positive experience.
Q. Tell our readers a little bit about the Nursing Mothers Counsel (NMC) and how it got started?
A. Nursing Mothers Counsel just celebrated its 50th anniversary on Sept. 18. In 1955, it was not the norm to breast-feed. A pre-natal exercise class instructor in Palo Alto taught her students about natural childbirth — which also was not the norm — and breast-feeding. A group of women from this class did their research — there was little breast-feeding information available at this time — and decided breast-feeding would be best for their babies. They wanted to encourage and support other moms in the community to breast-feed.
In October 1955, they formed NursingMothers Anonymous, which a few years later became Nursing Mothers Counsel, a nonprofit dedicated to providing free breast-feeding education and support to enable moms to have a positive and successful breast-feeding experience.
These early members took their own babies and did demonstrations at childbirth-education classes. They worked with moms on a one-to-one basis, counseling mainly by phone, but doing free home visits when needed. They chose the title Nursing Mothers "Counsel" rather than "Council" because their role was to counsel moms.
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