MANILA, Philippines – Most, if not all, moms have probably heard the phrase, “Breast milk is the best for babies,” at one point in their lives. It is perfectly true, of course, which is why the World Health Organization (WHO), in its report on “Global strategy on infant and young child feeding,” declares the following:
Breastfeeding is an unequalled way of providing ideal food for the healthy growth and development of infants; it is also an integral part of the reproductive process with important implications for the health of mothers. As a global public health recommendation, infants should be exclusively breastfed for the first six months of life to achieve optimal growth, development and health.
Thereafter, to meet their evolving nutritional requirements, infants should receive nutritionally adequate and safe complementary foods while breastfeeding continues for up to two years of age or beyond. Exclusive breastfeeding from birth is possible except for a few medical conditions, and unrestricted exclusive breastfeeding results in ample milk production.
Knowing the benefits of breastfeeding to both mother and child, two local enterprises recently held a post-Breastfeeding Awareness Month event to help provide breast milk to needy babies, namely “Mommy Milkshare: A MilkDrive for Moms Who Care.” The milk drive took place on September 5, 2015, at The Parenting Emporium, 29 1st Street, New Manila, Quezon City.
Breastfeeding moms happily donating their milk. Geraldyn Perez and Jem Perez-Chua of Honeysuckle Philippines are shown with their thumbs up — hurray for generous moms! | Courtesy of The Parenting Emporium Instagram
The beginnings of a noteworthy event
“It all started when Jem Perez-Chua and Geraldyn Perez,the owners of Honeysuckle Philippines, approached us with this idea to ‘give back’ by organizing a milkletting activity,” MaricelCua, co-founder of The Parenting Emporium (TPE) shares.
Maricel and her partner, Beng, gladly agreed to co-organize the event because, as part of their advocacy on nutrition, one of their beneficiaries is the TPE Milksharing Hub.* “The TPE Milksharing Hub fully supports milkletting activities like this, and responsible milk sharing,” she continues.
Jem shares why she and her sister Geraldyn thought of holding the MilkShare event. “We’ve been distributing Honeysuckle breast milk bags for over a year now and given the reception of Filipina moms to our brand, we want to give back as well,” she says.
Jem and Geraldyn found out that the concept of breast milk donation is not common knowledge, and some moms actually end up with a lot of “old frozen breast milk” because their babies simply weren’t able to consume all of their stored milk.
“So we thought — wouldn’t it be wonderful if another baby was able to benefit from that stored breast milk instead? It could possibly even save lives!” Jem exclaims.
Lia Mañalac Del Castillo and her “superstar” baby Aiyah at the Mommy Milkshare event | Courtesy of Lia Mañalac Del Castillo
Thus, the concept of Mommy Milkshare materialized. Aside from the milkletting activity, participants were treated to different talks by TPE’s partner experts Tanya Velasco of Guru Firm, Candice Cipullo of “The Traveling Maybahay” Blog, Tina Rodriguez of Truly Rich Mom, MommyProofing Coach Joy Dejos, and International Board Certified Lactation Consultant (IBCLC) Joyce Martinez of Center for Lactation Care. Lucky moms were also given free one-on-one lactation consultation sessions.
The event was a huge success, with 30 mothers donating a total of over 1,866 oz (55 liters) of breast milk, all of which was turned over to Fabella Hospital Milk Bank.
The breast milk collected at the Mommy Milkshare, all for the benefit of Fabella Hospital Milk Bank | ?Courtesy of Honeysuckle Philippines
Among the breast milk donors were GMA News anchor and senior correspondent Lia Mañalac Del Castillo, and acoustic singer and ASAP Sessionistas member Princess Velasco.
The Parenting Emporium’s Maricel Cua with breast milk donor mom Princess Velasco | Courtesy of Princess Velasco
It is hoped that through this event held for moms by moms, the message of “growing together as parents” will be shared to all, and that parents — especially mothers — will be encouraged to protect, promote and support breastfeeding, and share what they have with others.
If you are interested in donating your excess milk to the TPE Milk Sharing Hub, you may contact Maricel Cua at 0917-6247246, or Katrina Mitra at (02) 7253723 / (02) 7386272. You can also send an email to theparentingemporium@gmail.com. *Important reminders: Kindly prepare a Hepatitis-HIV profile that is less than six months old. If you have none, testing will be provided for free. Donated breast milk should be less than three months old from date of expression.