Requiescat In Pace

For Edwina Froehlich, co-founder of La Leche League. She passed away on June 8, but I just saw a note about her on Danielle Bean's blog, as well as this link to information about her life.

Without women like Edwina Froehlich, and women like my mom (and John's mom, too) who nursed babies in the 60s despite cultural discouragement, who knows whether our six would have had that advantage in their lives. Thanks to Mom's example, I always felt nursing was the best way to feed my babies. Thankfully, because of his mother's example, John was also supportive of the breastfeeding decision from the very beginning.

When Tommy was born, I did a lot of reading, especially The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding, which helped me articulate a thoughtful explanation for professors, employers, and friends.

There have been some awkward moments...I think of the time I was nursing Tommy at the Wright Brothers museum in Kitty Hawk. I was sitting on a bench in a hallway with a blanket over my shoulder. He was only a month or two old at the time, and I was new to public nursing.

Shockingly, as a ranger program let out, a man walking by jerked the blanket off my shoulder and said, "Is that a baby under there?" I don't know if he knew I was nursing or not, but he got the surprise of his life if he didn't. ;-) Thankfully, I was pretty well covered even without the blanket, and I felt annoyed instead of embarrassed.

"How dare he!" I thought.

Without Mom's example to raise my overall comfort level and without the women who worked for so many years to make breastfeeding accepted in the U.S., I would probably have melted into the bench right then and there. Instead, I felt HE was the one who should be embarrassed for his unenlightened, uncharitable behavior.

So please join me in prayer for the repose of the soul of Edwina Froehlich:

Eternal rest grant unto her, O Lord,
And may your perpetual light shine upon her;
May her soul, and all the souls of the faithful departed,
Through the mercy of God,
Rest in Peace.