Six Filipino mothers and three mothers of different nationalities breastfed simultaneously in the Philippine’s Central Site of Synchronized Breastfeeding Worldwide in an evacuation center amidst the devastation wrought by typhoon Ketsana Philippine Code: Ondoy to lead 17 other countries in other parts of the world.

Elvira L. Henares-Esguerra, Children for Breastfeeding said they pushed through with the event despite another brewing super typhoon because of the importance of breastfeeding especially in the current state of calamity. “We want people to know that formula milk is not sterile. We need to emphasize the hierarchy of priority values with respect to infant and young child feeding.with the first priority being breastfeeding by the child’s own mother, then expressed breastmilk from the child’s own mother, the next is wet-nursing or shared nursing by a person other than the child’s mother. The fourth priority being expressed breastmilk from a person other than the child’s mother and fifth priority being stored breastmilk from a human milk bank. Non-human milk prepared in accordance with applicable codex alimentarius standards is a poor sixth as the last resort."

Dr. Susann Roth, a public health specialist and 2009 Breastfeeding Queen of the Philippines mobilized members of Mothers and Darlings: Gladys Morales-Guevarra, and Nancy Bailet. She said that they wanted to help those mothers who are stressed and are having difficulty in breastfeeding by breastfeeding the babies themselves.

Nona D. Andaya-Castillo, Nurturers of the Earth and Henares-Esguerra also provided psycho-social assistance to children in the evacuation center by teaching them songs on breastfeeding using popular tunes. “These children need to play and get a break from the anxieties of being evacuees. At the same time, we have educated them how to appreciate and support pregnant and breastfeeding mothers. They also learned the hazards of formula-feeding through the songs,” she explained.

The groups distributed brown rice, beans, nuts and sesame seeds, root crops, dried fish and fruits to evacuees citing the importance of providing fresh local, nutrient-dense foods that have less chances of being contaminated.

The inspiration to stage Synchronized Breastfeeding Worldwide was conceived by Henares-Esguerra and Andaya-Castillo to educate mothers en masse on the benefits of breastfeeding. They also saw the need to create public pressure against milk companies and US officials’ move to suppress advocates and the Philippine health officials, the IBCLCs organized two simultaneous breastfeeding events (in single and multiple sites) in their country that created national and international impact and won two Guinness World Records.

The challenge to hold the global event spanning countries with different time zones evolved into the idea of synchronized breastfeeding by gathering 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 Henares-Esguerra’s organization, Children for Breastfeeding Inc 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 10,103 mother-child 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 Breastfeeding Clinic:Your Partner from Pregnancy to Parenting
A joint Project of Children for Breastfeeding, Inc. and Nurturers of the Earth Philippines
Managed by International Board Certified Lactation Consultants:
Nona D. Andaya-Castillo, IBCLC
Elvira L. Henares-Esguerra, MD, FPDS, RPh, IBCLC
PLDT Wireless Landline: (632) 701-4414 Mobile: 63-919-839-5555
www.breastfeedingphilippines.com