BEIJING (VIA PLDT)--While athletes compete for the gold at the 29th Olympic Games in Beijing, mothers have launched the Synchronized Breastfeeding Worldwide Year 2, dubbed the 2008 Breastfeeding Olympics.
The event, which will be held simultaneously in various countries, does not require extraordinary physical prowess or mental cunning.
Breastfeeding is the "gold standard" in rearing healthy and intelligent children, according to the Children for Breastfeeding group that was present during a luncheon hosted by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo on Saturday.
On Oct. 11, mothers in various countries will start breastfeeding their children at 11 a.m. local time. It has the slogan "Mother Support: Going for the Gold."
At the launch, Arroyo said she was supporting the endeavor, saying it promoted nutrition education and would lessen the country's dependence on imported milk.
"We also teach nutrition education or proper feeding that is not costly. This includes promoting breastfeeding so that we would not need to import milk from other countries," she said.
Children for Breastfeeding director Elvira Henares-Esguerra said she hoped to revive breastfeeding as part of local culture and to make it a status symbol. Esguerra said there were people who believed that breastfeeding should not be done in public, yet condone shows of women exposing their breasts.
Breastfeeding, according to Esguerra, is the best way to feed infants because it provides them with the nutrients they need, allows the mother and child to bond and is less costly than manufactured milk.
As part of the ceremony during the launch, Esguerra handed a symbolic torch—which had a picture of a mother breastfeeding her baby—to Dingbing, an active promoter of breastfeeding in China.
Although the synchronized breastfeeding will be held three months from now, it already has a gold medalist—policewoman Jiang Xiao Juan who breastfed nine infants who had survived the devastating May earthquake in Sichuan. Esguerra gave the gold medal to Dingbing, who received it on Jiang's behalf.
The Philippines has held two successful simultaneous breastfeeding events in 2006 and 2007 and even made it to the Guinness Book of World Records.
The Children for Breastfeeding also participated in 2007 in the first Synchronized Breastfeeding Worldwide.
