Mission Statement
BreastfeedLA is dedicated to improving the health and wellbeing of infants and families through education, outreach, and advocacy to promote and support breastfeeding.
History
BreastfeedLA (formerly known as the Breastfeeding Task Force of Greater Los Angeles) formed in 1994 by a group of dedicated volunteers who wanted to make a difference in the breastfeeding rates in Los Angeles County. BreastfeedLA incorporated as a not-for-profit 501(c)3 corporation in September of 2001.
Values
BreastfeedLA is committed to upholding a culture of humility, inclusion and connectedness through the following set of principles:
● Our work is grounded in diversity, equity and inclusion. We analyze power structures that lead to inequities within perinatal care and infant feeding practices. We work to create diverse, equitable and inclusive work spaces for employees, volunteers, our board, the lactation workforce and our partners. We actively engage community stakeholders in program development and design, educational offerings, and strategic planning. We model personal accountability and listening with intent to understand.
● We invest in each other’s liberation. We acknowledge the vital nature of our shared humanity. We aspire to operationalize anti-racism and radical inclusion both in our organization and in the healthcare systems we work with. We advocate for families, communities, and each other through a reproductive justice framework by centering those most marginalized.
● Excellence, integrity, and service are vital to our work. We deliver the highest-quality education and services in all endeavors. We carry out our work with the greatest responsibility and accountability to our community. We work to be of service and benefit to the public and our stakeholders. We practice care for our community and care for each other.
Vision
The 3-5-year future vision for BreastfeedLA is to realize infant feeding equity. This means every expectant or new parent has access to information, resources, and support that facilitate informed decision making and the ability to feed and maintain feeding their infant in the way they determine is safest, healthiest, and most fitting for their lives. Infant feeding is a progression after pregnancy and birth and is situated within the same historic and current contexts that belittle reproductive freedom. Infant feeding equity means transforming the context and redistributing resources and power to bring forth a foundation of parenthood that is rooted in justice, respect, self-determination and, ultimately, the health of future generations.
A Note About Terminology
BreastfeedLA uses the terms "breastfeeding" and "chestfeeding" interchangeably to describe the action of feeding an infant human-milk. The term "chestfeeding" is intentionally offered as an alternate term for lactating persons that prefer not to use the term "breast" when referring to their own bodies. This linguistic shift is part of BreastfeedLA's overt commitment to our organizational values of diversity and inclusion.
Strategic Plan
Our Strategic Plan features our Goals and Objectives