October 11 Feast of Our Lady of La Leche and My Daughter's Weaning Story

Since today is the Feast of Our Lady of La Leche, I thought a new post about her was in order!

As you may know from some of my other posts, I have 5 children whom I nursed for a total of about 15-16 years.  Breastfeeding was a very big part of my life for so many years and was part of my identity as a mother.  When my youngest was about 3.75 years old, she still nursed daily - usually before bed and sometimes during the day.  One evening when I was nursing her, she only nursed for maybe 30 seconds and then stopped and just wanted to snuggle.  I did not have a let-down in that short amount of time, so she didn't take any milk.  Then the next day, she did the same.  And the next day.  And the next day.  I soon realized that this was to become her new routine - dry nursing.  About a week later, I was thinking about the situation and realized that the last day she consumed any of my milk was Oct. 11, the Feast of Our Lady of La Leche!  Because I was getting older, I did not think I would probably have more children after my daughter.  Plus my oldest had a lot of health problems.  Some may say this was just a coincidence, but I believe it was a little bitty gift from Heaven to help me through the weaning of my last child!

My daughter dry nursed for quite a few months.  Then over the summer when she was 4 years old, we were visiting with ome other moms at our local Nature Center.  My daughter asked to nurse while we were there, but due to her age and size, I felt uncomfortable and told her "later."  That was the very last time she asked to nurse.  It has been quite a while since I have thought about her weaning, and I still need a box of Kleenex even today while reminiscing.

(Wikimedia commons)

Now on to a more cheerful topic...Our Lady of La Leche, the patron saint of a good birth and breastfeeding!  Who could be a better role model for nursing moms than the mother of Jesus!  According to Jewish tradition, she most likely nursed Jesus for 3 years.

There are several organizations devoted to her - the Catholic Nursing Mothers League (that's us!); the Shrine of Our Lady of La Leche in St. Augustine, FL; and the Santa Fe Shrine of Our Lady of La Leche in High Springs, FL.  I thought there was also a group from the Philippines that had a website, but I couldn't find it when doing an internet search.  It looks like the Shrine in St. Augustine has done a nice job updating their website.  I highly recommend visiting it!  They have the story behind the Shrine on their website.  Also, they recently reinstated their confraternity dedicated to Our Lady of La Leche.  They have an online form you can fill out if interested.

Also, Fr. Sauppe wrote a whole set of mysteries and a modified "Hail Mary" prayer based on the breastfeeding and weaning of baby Jesus.  Another fun fact: technically, Our Lady of La Leche was the inspiration for the secular breastfeeding organization, La Leche League.

If you know of any other organizations or websites devoted to Our Lady of La Leche, please let me know!