About CNML

Catholic Nursing Mothers League

Our contact info: CNML, 1915 Camino Redondo, Los Alamos, NM 87544

catholicbreastfeeding@yahoo.com

Our Vision:
A world where every child is breastfed, and our culture supports and nurtures nursing mothers.

Our Mission:
Our MISSION is to provide a forum for discussion, study and shared prayer among women interested in breastfeeding, especially the practice of full ecological breastfeeding, in a faithful Catholic context.

Overview:
The Catholic Nursing Mothers League was founded in April, 2006 by childbirth educator, breastfeeding counselor and former natural family planning instructor, Pamela H. Pilch.  It was inspired by the work of Sheila Kippley, author of Breastfeeding and Natural Child Spacing, and, more recently, Breastfeeding and Catholic Motherhood and The Seven Standards of Ecological Breastfeeding: The Frequency Factor

Pam's goal in creating the League was to provide encouragement and resources for Catholic mothers to gather in parishes to learn about breastfeeding and mothering, to give and receive spiritual and emotional support, and to reach out to parishes and communities to educate about the many physical and relational benefits, and about the long-standing Church teaching in support of, maternal breastfeeding. 

Since its beginning, CNML has been advised, supported and encouraged by author Sheila Kippley and her husband, theologian John Kippley, Professor Kevin Miller (Franciscan University of Steubenville), and  Fr. William Virtue (author of Mother and Infant).  We have received invaluable prayers and support from so many others.  We are grateful for all of this support.

Gina Peterson BS, IBCLC, a founding member of the CNML Advisory Board, took over as Executive Director of CNML in the summer of 2009. She is a homeschooling mother of four sons and one daughter and a volunteer lactation consultant.

In 2017, CNML officially partnered with Guiding Star Project.

We Hope You Will Make CNML Your Go To Breastfeeding Organization!

It is time to toot our own horn and talk about all the benefits of being part of CNML in comparison to other secular breastfeeding support organizations!

CNML has no yearly membership fee!  We are able to keep CNML running solely on donations.  Other breastfeeding organizations ask for $35-40 a year.  

CNML has a website with lots of great breastfeeding information and inspiring blog posts.  In the past, magazines were more popular and some breastfeeding support organizations offered support through a magazine as part of your membership.  However, most of them have now gone to weekly blog posts in addition to their websites.

CNML offers support through 3 Facebook groups, 26 in person groups/mentors and a monthly online meeting.  CNML Mentors share their personal breastfeeding experience and also find resources for nursing moms who have common breastfeeding concerns.  Secular breastfeeding organizations also offer meetings and help over the phone.

CNML offers spiritual support and is committed to Catholic/Christian values. This is one area in which secular breastfeeding organizations are weak, because volunteers are not supposed to mix their personal faith with their volunteer work.  CNML aims to support the whole person - body, mind, and soul.

CNML offers gifts to nursing moms.  In the past, other secular breastfeeding organizations have offered discounts on books and items in their online store as part of their membership fee.  CNML offers everything as gifts; items that have eternal significance in the life of a nursing mom.  CNML does this because it is first and foremost a ministry.

I hope you will think of CNML as YOUR breastfeeding support organization!

Principles of CNML

God the Creator has a plan for all men, women and children and this plan applies to every area of our lives. The Catholic Church's authoritative teaching helps us to know this plan.  God's plan includes conception, childbirth and the nurturing of babies.     

Breastfeeding is the natural continuation of the childbearing cycle which begins with conception, pregnancy and childbirth.  As such, it forms an important part of God's plan for mothers and babies.      

Breast milk is the best nourishment for babies, and the act of breastfeeding provides the best nurturing environment for both mothers and babies.    

Breastfeeding is a special way in which a mother makes a sincere gift of herself to her baby.  Breastfeeding is also a special way in which mothers are called to serve life in one of its most vulnerable stages.  In the breastfeeding Madonna, Catholic mothers have a special exemplar.

Ecological breastfeeding - the form of mothering which tends to delay the return of fertility after the birth of a baby - benefits the nursing child and enhances the mother's health and well-being.  Its natural child spacing effect is a moral and healthy form of natural birth regulation and should be supported and encouraged by families, society and the Church.      

Children deserve to be raised to appreciate the equality and complementarity of men and women in the context of lifelong marriage.  Fathers offer essential spiritual and emotional support to their breastfeeding wives, and they provide for and protect the nursing couple.  These early acts of service lay the groundwork for fathers' unique and irreplaceable role in their children's lives.

Women have a right to be truthfully informed about the benefits of breastfeeding for themselves as well as for their babies.  Families, parishes, communities, governments and society have a responsibility to protect and strengthen cultural support for breastfeeding practices.

Children need their mothers' presence, especially in the first three years of life.  With or without breastfeeding, motherhood is an important and valuable way in which women live in accordance with their nature as persons created in God's image.

Faith Statement of CNML

The Catholic Nursing Mothers League acknowledges that the Catholic Church was founded by Christ, and the League assents to all that the Church authentically teaches through the Magisterium.

· The teachings of the Roman Pontiffs and the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith are accepted by CNML as authoritative.

· In particular, the Catholic Nursing Mothers League assents to the following specific teachings that bear on our work as supporters of breastfeeding mothers:

1. We respect the sanctity of all human life from conception to natural death.  We oppose all forms of abortion, both surgical and via abortafacient devices and drugs.

2. We believe that marriage is between one man and one woman and that children are the supreme gift of marriage.  We believe that married couples are called to be generous in the service of life and to exercise responsible parenthood.

3. We reject all unnatural forms of birth control, and we reject as contrary to God’s plan all means of seeking conception in which technological interventions are substituted for the marriage act. We accept the morality of natural means of birth regulation for couples with a serious reason to space their children.