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CNA Newsroom, Jul 12, 2025 / 10:00 am (CNA).
"The only males allowed in our meetings will be very young ones," said Ruth Lewis, one of the founders of MoMa Breastfeeding, a newly launched support group for breastfeeding mothers.
The group was founded by former trustees of La Leche League Great Britain, who say they were ousted from the group for their belief that only women can breastfeed.
"As experienced breastfeeding counselors, we saw skills and knowledge being lost through changes in language and the abandonment of mother-centered practice," says the website of MoMa Breastfeeding.
"Support for mothers and children that protects the mother-baby dyad is needed more than ever."
Group has Catholic roots
Founded in 1956 by seven Catholic women in Illinois who named the group after the nursing Madonna and in response to a rise in formula feeding, La Leche League ("La leche" means milk in Spanish) originally supported natural family planning and other Catholic moral teachings.
It changed over the years, however, dropping its Catholic identity as it grew. And in recent years, the group in the U.S. and elsewhere has embraced gender ideology and so-called "inclusive" language, using terms like "chestfeeding" and allowing men who say they are women to participate in meetings.
This pivot clashed with the convictions of many of the group's leaders, including Marian Thompson, 95, one of the original founders who resigned from the board of La Leche League International in 2024 in protest.
The breaking point in Britain came in early 2024 when six trustees with the British group, including Lewis, a 17-year veteran La Leche League leader, were suspended after raising their concerns about the inclusion of males in women-only spaces and the confusing new language with the U.S.-based international board, on which sit members from all over the world.
The international group had issued an order in early 2024 for all affiliates in Great Britain to offer breastfeeding support to all nursing parents, regardless of their "gender identity" or sex.
The suspended trustees complained to the British Charity Commission, which they argued protects single-sex organizations.
Lewis said the trustees then published their full correspondence with all the La Leche League leaders in Great Britain, and it was not long before the press got wind of the dispute.
A spokesperson for the trustees said in 2024 that they had "exhausted every process available to us to defend sex-based services."
"[La Leche League] International and a small number of fellow trustees at [the British chapter] have undermined our efforts and left us with no choice but to alert the Charity Commission … We would like to reassure group leaders and the mothers who benefit from LLLGB's services that we are confident the law is on our side, as 'mother' is a sex-based term in UK law."
The Supreme Court in the United Kingdom ruled in April that sex is determined by biology, a decision welcomed by both MoMa's founders and advocates for biological reality worldwide.
"La Leche League International called us hateful bigots, but we were just trying to protect the mother-baby relationship," Lewis told CNA.
MoMa's mission is to provide free, voluntary, mother-to-mother support from pregnancy through weaning, Lewis said, and the group insists on clarity.
"The gender-neutral language is damaging," Lewis said. "When you say 'parent' instead of 'mother,' it detracts from the relationship. It makes information harder to access, especially for mothers with dyslexia or whose first language isn't English."
Justine Lattimer is a lawyer specializing in child protection who is helping MoMa get off the ground and is the sister of one of the group's founders.
"The baby's needs have been overlooked in all this talk of 'chestfeeding' and 'parent'," Lattimer said in an interview with CNA. "It's all about what the parent wants. None of it is about the baby's needs."
"A baby is born expecting to breastfeed — it's a biological imperative," Lattimer said. "The mother is the complete answer to all the baby's questions in those first moments."
Lattimer argues that breastfeeding is more than nutrition — it's about comfort, bonding, and the tactile, emotional connection between a mother and her child.
"Breastfeeding is part of mothering," she said. "It's part of a mother's natural learning of being responsive in parenting."
"A lot of things have happened over the course of the twentieth century that have broken that relationship a little bit," Lattimer continued. "Mothers have been disenfranchised."
Lattimer says she hopes MoMa can help restore some of that brokenness by providing a place for mothers to talk about their common experiences.
"It's also empowering for women" to have such a place, she said. "Women have been led to believe everything is technical and requires an expert," she added. "We're here to say, 'You're enough. You were made for this. You can do this.'"
Cynthia Dulworth agrees. The former La Leche League leader and Catholic mother of three told CNA that the "Catholic theology that my body could do this – to grow the baby in my womb, to give birth, and to breastfeed – completely changed my lifestyle and helped me connect with my children."
"I truly believe that breastfeeding is not merely for nutrition but more importantly a relationship between a mother and a baby which is irreplaceable," said Dulworth, who resigned as a leader because she disagreed with the changes in language.
"I didn't want to confuse my daughters, who were often with me in meetings or when I took phone calls," she said.
"Breastfeeding is a sex-based reality. It's not about gender — it's about mothers and their babies," Paula Clay, a lactation consultant and long-time La Leche League leader in the U.S. who supports MoMa's mission, told CNA.
For Clay, a Catholic who wears a crucifix and miraculous medal at her breastfeeding support groups, MoMa represents a return to "true north" — a focus on mothers and babies.
MoMa's launch in May garnered immediate attention on social media, amplified by a "substantial" donation from famed author J.K. Rowling, an outspoken critic of men who call themselves women "invading" women's spaces, who re-posted the group's announcement to her millions of followers.
"We couldn't have bought publicity like that," Lewis told CNA, noting the donation covered critical startup costs like registering the company and setting up a website. The group has since received dozens of small donations, averaging £20, often accompanied by heartfelt messages.
The positive response has been overwhelming, Lewis said.
"People write, 'Sorry it's not more,' but we're grateful for every bit," she said.
As MoMa grows, it aims to remain "small and perfectly formed," Lattimer said.
"We're not here to police language or fight culture wars. We just want to help mothers breastfeed their babies. The world won't end if we call mothers 'mothers' and say no to men occasionally," she said.
