SET THE DATE: GLOBAL SYNCHRONIZED BREASTFEEDING YEAR 4: OCTOBER 1-3, 2011!!!
There are many acts of discrimination against mothers who breastfeed in public. Simultaneous breastfeeding started out as a protest that mothers resort to when they are admonished as they fulfill their nurturing role. The act’s popularity rose in countries like USA, Canada and Australia to become a form of celebration during occasions like World Breastfeeding Week.
To educate mothers en masse on the benefits of breastfeeding and create public pressure against milk companies and US officials’ move to suppress advocates and the Philippine health officials, two International Board Certified Lactation Consultants (IBCLCs) Elvira L. Henares-Esguerra, MD, FPDS, RPh, IBCLC and Nona D. Andaya-Castillo, IBCLC mobilized their organizations, Children for Breastfeeding Inc. and Nurturers of the Earth Philippines to partner with The City of Manila, Department of Health (DOH), UNICEF Philippines. With 3,541 mother-baby pairs, they broke the USA record of 1,130 mother-baby pairs at Berkeley, California.
Inspired by their success as the current Guinness World Record Holder of Simultaneous Breastfeeding in a Single Site, they partnered with the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) and Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) and established the first Guinness Record on Simultaneous Breastfeeding in Multiple Sites with 15,128 mother-child pairs in 295 sites. Both these events stirred national and international impact.
“Yesterday, Manila, today the Philippines, tomorrow the world!” With that battle cry, Synchronized Breastfeeding Worldwide was conceived by these two IBCLCs with the challenge to hold the event spanning countries with different time zones. The idea is to gather the most number of mother baby pairs to breastfeed at exactly the same LOCAL TIME in their Time Zone. Similar to the celebration of New Year, every hour in succession for a 24-hour period, countries in one time zone will breastfeed simultaneously.
The first global event spearheaded by Dr. Elvira’s organization, Children for Breastfeeding Philippines, in partnership with the World Alliance for Breastfeeding Action (WABA) took place on 8 August 2007 to cap the celebration of World Breastfeeding Week. It mobilized breastfeeding groups in Asia, Europe, Africa, North America and Latin America. Some 10,103 mother-baby pairs converged in 325 sites in 16 countries with 9,826 pairs successfully latched at exactly 10:00 a.m. at their own local time. The Philippines gathered over 7,000 mother-baby pairs, followed by Japan and New Zealand, with over 1,000 and 800 respectively.
The country events sparked collaborations from UN agencies, governments, hospitals and NGOs, many of whom were touched by a synergy of the peaceful, spiritual moment when children became calm as mothers breastfed and prayed together.
