More than sixty mothers with their young ones in Davao City joined the world on Synchronized Breastfeeding Day at exactly 10:00 a.m. of October 8, 2010 local time.
The mothers converged at the Covered Court of the Department of Social Welfare and Development regional office, and breastfed their babies simultaneously with other mothers in the country and in 32 other countries at same local time in their time zone.
Helena M. Calatrava, DSWD’s breastfeeding focal person, said the activity signified the 4th year celebration of global synchronized breastfeeding which was first spearheaded by the Children for Breastfeeding Philippines in 2007.
Calatrava informed that the Philippines led the synchronized breastfeeding worldwide last year where she said about 68,000 participants had gathered from multiple sites across the nation. She said this gained a Guinness World Record for the country.
She stated that this year’s participation in the breastfeeding activity has allotted a single site for the region which was Davao City where all participating mother-baby pairs came from.
At the end of the synchronized breastfeeding program, DSWD-11 officials and personnel awarded special citations to mothers and babies who joined the activity which included recognition to a three-day old baby as the youngest participant.
The second child to be cited was a three-year old girl who up to now is being breastfed by her 26-year old mother, Maylyn Camasura.
Camasura said her continuous breastfeeding of her child provides many benefits, citing that Adrianne Grace seldom gets sick, maintains her body weight and has a healthy set of teeth. She said she will continue breastfeeding as long as she could.
Calatrava, also a nutritionist, said that breastfeeding has been part of the advocacy of DSWD nationwide where mothers are educated on the importance of breastfeeding to children and to mothers, too.
“Breastfeeding is the major event of the first 24 hours of a baby’s life when he/she takes in the colostrums from the mother’s milk that serve as anti-bodies,” Calatrava explained.
She said they strongly recommend breastfeeding at least for the first six months to ensure health benefits for the baby, citing the advantages of more resistance to infections and far from becoming overweight.
Aside from the nutritional values, Calatrava also discussed the advantage of the emotional bonding between the mother and her child from breastfeeding. “The emotional bond that is created during breastfeeding will help make better the emotional quotient of the child,” she said. Calatrava also said the breastfed child is also more intelligent. [PIA-XI/Carina L. Cayon]
