Betty Wagner Spandikow
 |
Betty Redmond Wagner Spandikow (1923 –2008), of Glen Ellyn, Illinois, was a founder of the La Leche League (LLL; later LLLI) and co-author of The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding, which has over 2,000,000 copies in print and has been translated into eight languages and Braille.
Born in 1923, she was raised in the Chicago area and went on to work in accounting before starting her family; she had seven children. In 1956, Betty Wagner and six other women met in Franklin Park, Illinois to share information on how to successfully breastfeed their babies. The group quickly attracted the attention of other women and became an organization called “La Leche League”. Betty was expecting her fifth child, and, after being asked to be a part of the group that was being organized to help breastfeeding mothers, joined.
The breastfeeding support group had been fascinated by the importance placed on breastfeeding by early Spanish settlers in America who, in 1598, dedicated a shrine to “Nuestra Senora de la Leche y Buen Parto” (“Our Lady of Happy Delivery and Plentiful Milk”). From these roots grew La Leche League International, a breastfeeding support not-for-profit organization. LLLI now has groups in every U.S. state and in 64 nations.
Wagner Spandikow was a member of the Board of Directors for the League, and at various times served as Treasurer, Business Manager, and Executive Director, a title she held for 19 years until she retired at age 70. She initiated "flex hours" and a family-friendly workplace in the 1960s, long before they became commonplace. The business hours at La Leche League International (LLLI) were set to allow mothers to be home with their children after school.
Family
Her first husband, Robert Wagner, by whom she had seven children, died in 1975. Betty Wagner went on to marry Paul Spandikow.
Death
Betty Wagner Spandikow had suffered a stroke and been dealing with Alzheimer's disease at the time of her death at the age of 85 on October 26, 2008.