Latching on

After the birth of my daughter in 1986, I went back to work with a vital accessory: a small cooler filled with empty feeding bottles and a breast pump. During breaks, I would park myself in the kitchenette leading to the restroom and express breast milk, then bring the filled bottle to the canteen kitchen where I stored it in the refrigerator.

When someone wanted to use the restroom, the rest of the staff of Veritas, a newsmagazine that was proudly part of the anti-Marcos “mosquito press,” would pound on the locked door, shouting: “What are you doing there? Playing with yourself again?”

Otherwise, whenever I left the kitchenette with a full bottle, a wise guy would invariably quip: “Ahh, just in time, I need some milk for my coffee!”

But that’s small potatoes compared to the harassment and public embarrassment that other breastfeeding mothers experience. One told me that when she started breastfeeding her bawling child while aboard a jeepney, the rest of the passengers turned away while one old lady reprimanded her: “Hija, that’s not something you do in public.” Other mothers breastfeeding their babies inside malls have been told off by security guards to do their “thing” in more private spaces. That is, until shopping malls opened nursing rooms in their premises, billing it as part of their “corporate social responsibility” program.

But if you think nursing a baby is something better done in the confines of a bedroom or home, then you should bring yourself over tomorrow to the Rajah Sulayman Park in Malate, where more than 100 mothers and their babies, their other children, husbands, families and members of their support system are banding together in an event called “Hakab Na!: A Breastfeeding Mob.” The event will be held simultaneously with similar gatherings in Davao, Cagayan de Oro and Bacolod and is billed the “first of its kind in the Philippines.”

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Organizers of the event, who call themselves (on Facebook) “Breastfeeding Pinays,” say they are hosting the public nursing gathering “to promote women’s right to breastfeed and the importance of providing proper support to breastfeeding mothers.”

August happens to be “Breastfeeding Awareness Month,” and Aug. 1-7 is “World Breastfeeding Week,” under the auspices of the World Alliance for Breastfeeding Action. The theme of this year’s celebration is “Breastfeeding Support: Close to Mothers.”

“Breastfeeding in this country is a national health crisis,” declares Velvet Escario-Roxas, one of the administrators of Breastfeeding Pinays. “Although breastfeeding rates have steadily gone up over the years through efforts [of] different government, nongovernment organizations and medical communities, there is still so much to be done. Forming this online support group of mothers and gathering together [are] one of our contributions to the cause.”

Organizers add that the breastfeeding mob “aims to remove the stigma of nursing in public.” Benz Co-Rana, founder of Newlyweds@Work, an online community of parents promoting breastfeeding, says they “want to create a harmonious culture of breastfeeding in the Philippines. We want to encourage mothers to become more confident while breastfeeding in public.”

Breastfeeding Pinays partnered with Kaya Women Empowerment and Support Group, LATCH (Lactation, Attachment, Training, Counseling, Help), Arugaan, Newlyweds@Work, Tickled Moms, Davao’s Mommy Sense, Cagayan de Oro’s Mommy Bright Side, the Bacolod Mom and Baby Club, and bloggers Jenny Ong (Chronicles of a Nursing Mom) and Eliza Ypon (The Painter’s Wife) in organizing this activity.

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They are joined in their advocacy by UN organizations in the Philippines: the International Labour Organization (ILO), the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef) and the World Health Organization (WHO).

Breastfeeding “is a natural way of providing complete nourishment to a newborn baby from the first hour of birth to six months,” says a UN statement. Ideally, breastfeeding should continue as complementary feeding up to two years of age and beyond. This is because “breast milk also enhances optimal brain development, promotes maternal and infant bonding, and has immune properties that protect babies and young children from diseases.”

Indeed, adds Dr. Abdul Alim, Unicef Philippines representative, “on the basis of these inherent benefits, Unicef upholds and advocates breastfeeding as a cost-effective strategy for survival, growth, development and protection of infants and young children from birth up to two years.”

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In terms of laws and regulations, there should be no problem promoting breastfeeding in the Philippines.

The National Milk Code and the Expanded Breastfeeding Promotion Act regulate the marketing, and sales of breast milk substitutes or infant formula. Hospitals are no longer allowed to give new mothers a can of formula to take home with them when they leave the hospital or clinic.

But reality has a way of frustrating the law. For instance, women’s participation in wage employment (formal work) has increased over the years, but many of these forms of work still leave women vulnerable. “With the fear of losing their only source of income, working women find it hard to continue exclusive breastfeeding even just until their babies reach six months; some are forced to give up exclusive breastfeeding altogether,” says ILO Philippines Director Lawrence Jeff Johnson.

Dr. Julie Hall of WHO likewise observes that while the Philippines may have “among the best laws (on breastfeeding) in the world, serving as models for other countries, what are urgently required are resources and partnerships for their full implementation in workplaces and communities.”