By Minerva BC Newman

Cebu, Philippines (2 May) -- Today at exactly 10:00 a.m. the nation will witness herds of breastfeeding mothers at DSWD day care centers, churches, hospitals and private sponsored sites for the "First Guinness World Record on Simultaneous Breastfeeding in Multiple Sites nationwide.

According to the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD-7) in the region, it has already enjoined all local government units, day care centers, health centers and hospitals in the provinces of Cebu, Bohol, Oriental Negros and Siquijor for the nationwide simultaneous breastfeeding.

According to the Breastfeeding Philippines.com the main goal of the activity is to enable parents to recognize, appreciate and utilize the body's tremendous capacity to nurture, heal and regenerate itself, establishing breastfeeding as the norm and the gold standard in infant and young child feeding. It also wants to revive certain earth-friendly Filipino indigenous health and nurturing practices that sustained breastfeeding in the past.

This year's event, the organizers say, will be an annual national prayer of thanksgiving that "our children will grow up believing in God's infinite wisdom and generosity in a healthy, safe and peaceful world as well as celebrating the profound experience of motherhood and breastfeeding.

As can be recalled, on May 4, 2006 the Philippines broke the record for simultaneous breastfeeding in a single site when it mobilized 3,541 mothers to breastfeed in San Andres Sports Complex and Civic Center in Manila. The previous record was garnered by the U.S.A in Berkely, California with 1,130 mothers in 2002.

To uphold the international standard of ethics, the organizers of this event strongly stipulate that there are no involvement of milk companies and companies tat produce or market related equipment like bottles, teats and pacifiers and other baby food products at the sites during the "Sabay-sabay, Sumoso sa Nanay" activity.

During the event, breastfeeding mothers are served indigenous foods such as boiled banana, corn, gabi, kamoteng-kahoy and local fruits in season. Breastfeeding, according to the event's project brief, addresses seven (7) issues on (a) food security; (b) medicine; (c) economy; (d) ecology; (e) empowerment; (f) Love and (g) faith.

"To truly alleviate poverty, our people must learn to appreciate and sustain themselves with the cheapest and most nutritious foods, especially breast milk. Part of the hunger mitigation campaign is to educate the people that these foods are cheap and they are the most nutrient-dense," according to the regional director of the National Nutrition Council in region VII, Parolita Mission.

With breast milk, it is the only perfect food for infants and the only perfect milk for young children because it contains immunological properties and breastfeeding is a healing process. Statistic revealed that if all lactating mothers in the country breastfeed their babies, the country can save $57M or about P2.96-Billion/year.

Unicef said the Philippines imports 400 million dollars of unnecessary milk and milk products every year, the same amount that could finance the construction of some 22 million classrooms, buy 110 million textbooks, or build 880,000 housing units.

Press Secretary and Presidential spokesperson Ignacio Bunye said, "The Philippines as a matter of national policy supports and promotes breastfeeding and adheres to reasonably strict standards for the entry of infant milk formula products in the Philippines."

Sometime in November last year, mothers and breast milk advocates were outraged by a letter of Thomas Donahue, president, Chamber of Commerce of the USA warning President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo on the government's position against infant formulas.