LLL of Georgia was founded in 1959.

Anne Marie Miller (Leader, Area Historian) ~ Beginnings of LLL of Georgia -- On October 7, 2006, Jane Robertson and I had a chance to interview Terri Weaver, the founder of La Leche League of Georgia. I have read a summary she had written several years ago, but talking with her brought the written words to life.   

The history of La Leche League of Georgia reaches back almost 50 years to a small group meeting in Dekalb County, Georgia. From written materials and the October 6th interview with Terri Weaver, we learned that things started when Sister Theophane came to town. Sometime in 1959 Sister Theophane, a Medical Mission sister, was in Atlanta with plans to build a hospital that would encourage natural childbirth and breastfeeding. Terri met her and invited her to speak to the St. Gerard Guild, a mothers' guild based at Immaculate Heart of Mary Catholic Church on Briarcliff Road in Dekalb County, Georgia. Sister Theophane was a nun and midwife who knew the founders of La Leche League and probably Dr. Ratner as well. She encouraged St. Gerard's Guild to become an LLL Group, the first one in Georgia.

When Terri was trying to remember dates for us, she found herself doing something very familiar to all of us--tying events to when certain children were born. She remembers the Group in connection with her third child, born in 1959. As we talked, Terri emphasized that the beginnings of La Leche League in Georgia were very informal. It took some time for the group to really find its focus, since there was also a very strong concern for improving childbirth experiences. At that point anesthetized birth was the norm, and most doctors were very disapproving of the mother getting strongly involved in any sort of birth decisions. In fact, such a concept really didn't exist. Terri Weaver remembers that "Sister" put her on a mailing list out of Chicago. The first letters were legal size in faded purple ink, a popular way of copying at that time. The first manual Terri read was letterhead size and stapled together. Terri was soon pregnant with her third and since she had wanted natural childbirth with her second, she was reading everything she could find...mostly Dick Read's tome.

Teresa Gernazian, Kathy Fabian and Terri started the first group. It usually met at Terri's house. The group grew quickly and held regular meetings. Terri corresponded regularly with LLL, being assigned to one person who answered her questions and put her through her LLL paces. Jackie Duke was next to become regularly active with the group. A good many pilots' wives from Southside attended and the Group (there was only one group) went over to that area for meetings in Sr. Theophane's new hospital on Cascade. Joyce Stubbs and Almeta Partin were among the first from the Southside to come. Joyce Stubbs and Nancy Hale were the first leaders on the south side of Atlanta. Jo Thompson came down from Marietta and Sandy Bonner from Clarkston. Celeste Murphy came in about the same time.

It was at least six years before a second group, the Southside LLL Group, was started in 1965. That group was located in the Austell area and found itself providing support to many in the airline industry. In fact, one LLL member ended up writing a poem to one pilot and his crew.

While many mothers were eager for the information La Leche League could provide, very few were willing to put themselves in a leadership position which would require incredible self-confidence. A Leader could also find herself extremely busy. The Georgia phone was located in her house and Terri remembers fielding approximately 100 calls a month.   As she continued with this work, Terri's family grew in size, eventually numbering nine children.   In addition to supporting breastfeeding efforts, Terri was also busy making sure she received the kind of obstetric care she wanted, shopping all over for doctors and often switching practices, even with only weeks left in a pregnancy. Terri said flatly that she "fought tooth and nail to have her baby without anesthesia." This was NOT a popular concept.

Terri Weaver has stated that her motivation for starting the League was very simple.   It was "good mothering through breastfeeding".   "Having come from a physically abusive background it was very important to me not to parent in the same way I was parented.   (that is a personal side that to my knowledge was not discussed publicly--no problem for me now.) League [sic] gave me the confidence to parent the way instince and common sense was guiding me."

In her written summary Terri remembers, "Much time was spent on how to dress and nurse discreetly. Often fashions shared, pleats and zippers in dresses and the like.   Lots of talk about attitudes such as 'men who felt the breast was theirs and had problems'...some felt they could 'afford' bottle feeding...some likened breastfeeding to poor black women so race also entered into attitudes. Big discussions on delayed solids and first foods.   Adele Davis books were very popular. We made our own baby food with blenders and talked about that a lot.   Great emphasis was put on mothering. During illness or after a problem delivery hand expressing and freezing breast milk. The first milk bank here was in my freezer and on two emergency illness occasions, I wet-nursed other children."

Meetings were held in a series of four. Terri remembers one meeting covering difficulties and overcoming them. The third was nutrition, and the fourth childbirth. Doctors were a problem and doctor shopping a big topic of discussion. Robert Nutall, a GP from Austell was the first doctor in the area to help. Many early Georgia members of LLL went to him, one of the few who would cooperate with their birthing goals. He had a problem finding an OB to cover serious problems and Stanley Levine, MD, was the first to help.   Later a father's night was added to the series.

Terri says, "We broadened our circle of friends through League. Meeting for fun picnics and the like. I do not remember evaluation meetings. We three lived in a row so we talked together daily...The reasons for meetings here was that I had little ones and no transportation (can you believe one car)."

Terri became a Chapter President and then Area Coordinator at a time when Georgia and Alabama were one Area. She was still heavily involved as Regional Administrator of Leaders when the LLLI Conference was held in Atlanta in 1979. Eventually the competing demands of two big volunteer commitments became too much, and Terri chose to concentrate on Birthright. By the time she left La Leche League of Georgia, it had become an area in its own right with 57 Groups and over 100 Leaders.

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