Hakab Na: The First Breastfeeding Mob in The Philippines!

Schedule of activities for CDO Breastfeeding Mob

This is not for us who have access to WiFi, who have the machinery to take this up on to higher ground. This is especially dedicated to the plight of economically poor mothers – new ones and other hopefuls – who feel intimidated by society’s non-acceptance of breastfeeding in public. 

Because really, despite the burgeoning number of breastfeeding Filipina mothers, when it comes to nursing a hungry child outside the home, majority of us still squirm and see it as lewd – even asking our own spouses or family to cover up or go to the toilet to nurse. Surely we adults will find it ridiculous if we were asked to put a blanket over our heads while eating or worse, to eat in a toilet!

Truth be told, even the husband feels uncomfortable about the matter, and I don’t blame him. We as a society bred in Western cultural influences have always been conditioned to think of breasts as purely sexual.

And this attitude, this hostility toward an act that nature itself has designed specifically for mothers and babies, need to shift. It is destroying the confidence of mothers who want to breastfeed without being ridiculed; and because breastfeeding anywhere, whenever the demand strikes, is the key to breastfeeding success. 

Breastmilk goes by nature’s supply-and-demand law. When that is disrupted because the society’s perspectives on nursing publicly conflicts with that of the mom’s (and nature’s), it is going to hurt the mom’s supply, and ultimately, the baby’s. 

To say that breastfeeding is best for babies is to also recognize the fact that attitudes that decry mothers who hope and choose to feed their babies straight from the tap whenever needed have no place in a society that professes itself a staunch believer of breastfeeding.