Mother’s milk is best

My father, a physician-surgeon, was systematic and methodical. He did every task thoroughly. He infused his systematic and methodical manner with loving thought and care. For this reason, he wrote letters constantly to his children and grandchildren, keeping two duplicate copies of every letter he wrote!

Rummaging through his files, I discovered a letter addressed to a grandson and his wife, admonishing the latter to breastfeed her newly-born infant. It is the best way to nourish a baby, my father wrote. On this matter, my mother, a gynecologist-obstetrician, heartily agreed. Decades ago, my parents were already promoting breastfeeding as the best, indeed, the only way, to keep babies healthy.

Apparently, most Filipino mothers assiduously breastfeed their babies, landing in the Guinness Book of World Records as the largest number of mothers doing so anywhere in the world.

This calls to mind World Breastfeeding Week which will open on August 14, and which will be celebrated in the Ceremonial Hall – renamed Rizal Hall – of Malacañang Palace. President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo will be present, and she and all others with her will see a photo exhibit featuring "The Twelve Disciples of the Virgin Mother" consisting of role models among breastfeeding mothers who, although they work outside the home, manage to follow closely the WHO/UNICEF recommendations of exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months, and continued breastfeeding with complementary indigenous foods, without the use of cow’s milk.

This is the way God wants it, else why would mothers have milk after their babies are born?

The patron saint of the Breastfeeding Movement is the Virgin Mother – Nuestra Señora de la Leche y Buen Parto – Our Lady of Breastmilk and Safe Delivery. Statues and paintings show the Virgin Mother breastfeeding Baby Jesus, with the motto, "If it is good enough for Baby Jesus, then it is good enough for your baby".

In accordance with ancient Jewish tradition, Baby Jesus was breastfed up to four years of age, full weaning having been done when the child began his education in the tenets of the Jewish faith. The layout for the breastfeeding Virgin Mother was approved by no less than Ricardo Cardinal Vidal on Oct. 21, 2005 – a clear cut message contending that the showing of breasts for breastfeeding is not to be compared with the baring of breasts for seduction. The former is wholesome and natural, neither indecent nor something to be embarrassed about, and is notably exempted from all laws forbidding nudity in most countries.

The aforementioned exhibit photographed by Jessie Pastor of the Blow-Up Babies Studio, courtesy of Palanca Awardee Quark B. Henares, features the Twelve Disciples of the Virgin Mary in the Breastfeeding Movement, for every month of the 2007 calendar, for which the photographs are designed.

A pamphlet describes the various models, and some of their stories are amusing, others inspiring, each arresting attention. For instance, Amelia Ann de los Reyes Alba, 32, Chef and Restaurateur of Barbara’s in Intramuros, recalls that her maid, an Aeta, while breastfeeding her baby with the left breast, aimed her right breast in Amelia’s direction, and squirting milk on her with uncanny accuracy although she was five feet away! Corinne Pascua Medrana, 33, Communications Consultant, was called by her doctor "Mother Earth" because she had so much milk, she was able to breastfeed all her children, and eight other babies!

Elizabeth Imperial Cariño, 21, sales coordinator, found herself pregnant. Single, she refused to marry the father of her child, and set out to make her own way into the world, alone. One day, while she was breastfeeding her child in a mall where she was shopping, a guard approached her and suggested she go to a comfort room and feed her child in private. Shocked, she said angrily, "What? Do you eat in the bathroom of your house? No? Well, neither will my child. He eats whenever and wherever he is hungry." This incident inspired the Children for Breastfeeding, Inc. and the SM Supermalls to establish a lactation center in every SM shopping center where mothers are welcome to nurse their babies anytime.

Rosanna Warren Robles-Fernandez, 51, Call Center Spanish interpreter, is the mother-in-law of Apa Ongpin. A grandmother and a mother of three, she is acclaimed as the oldest breastfeeding mother at the Guinness Affair. Nuriza Abja Bungubung, 28, gained 70 pounds during pregnancy but brought back her weight to normal by breastfeeding her baby, and thus confounding friends. Buding Aquino Dee, 33, multi-awarded entrepreneur, says, "My son, Tommy, is a brilliant highly functioning, musically gifted child who sings with absolute pitch. I attribute this to extended breastfeeding and the deep connectedness it brings."

Few may have experienced what Pamela C. Magallon, 35, Event Organizer and Entrepreneur, did. When she was born, her own mother died from extreme post-partum pains. She underwent 48 hours of labor with her first-born son who had to be placed in an incubator. Hospital rules prevented her from rooming-in with her baby. But determined to breastfeed him, she went to the nursery. She ate sweets, dairy products and processed foods that caused constipation and rashes to her breastfed son – till Nona Andaya-Castillo, a lactation consultant, changed her life with good breastfeeding practices and a vegetarian diet.

Nona B. Andaya-Castillo, 43, International Board Certified Lactation Consultant, teaches natural parenting, natural fertility management and natural healing, using food as medicine. Bottle-fed as a baby, she endured hospitalizations as a result, aggravated by her father, an ice cream company worker, who brought home tons of dairy products which destroyed her health. She recovered through a natural lifestyle and healing that she actively promotes alongside breastfeeding.

Ipat Luna-Severino, 40, lawyer and TOYM awardee for environmental protection, Walkie M. Mirana-Africa, 34, Development Worker, and Elvira L. Henares Esguerra, 50, physician, dermatologist, registered pharmacist and an International Board Lactation Consultant, are activists who move hearts and minds promoting breastfeeding for babies.