PIA breastfeeding seminars held in QC

Team Pinay In Action (PIA), the advocacy arm of Senator Pia Cayetano, recently conducted two breastfeeding seminars in Quezon City.

The seminars aim to raise awareness on the importance of supporting lactating mothers and providing babies with the best form of nutrition and natural protection through breastfeeding.

On Friday (August 25), the seminars were held at the Quezon City General Hospital (QCGH), together with groups of lactating mothers, pregnant women, barangay health workers, and the hospital’s staff.

The seminars are part of the year-round advocacy of Senator Cayetano to promote maternal and children’s health in both urban centers and rural areas. The senator is the principal sponsor of the Expanded Breastfeeding Promotion Act of 2010 (Republic Act No. 10028).

QCGH medical director Dr. Josephine Sabando said that the seminars complement the hospital’s own efforts to raise breastfeeding awareness among its maternity patients, especially since the event includes mothers and health workers from the surrounding barangays.

Dr. Sabando shared that QCGH has been operating its own human milk bank, established in 2015, where mothers donate their milk for infants staying at the hospital’s neonatal intensive care unit. Thus, breastfeeding awareness is also important in sustaining the milk bank.

Meanwhile, Dra. Ma. Victoria B. Bigornia, who chairs QCGH’s breastfeeding committee, said that the reception of QC mothers to breastfeeding has been positive overall.

“It’s very good, because more than 80% (are breastfeeding). Tapos pagka panganak nila, talagang nairu room-in sila kaya talagang nakakapagpa-breastfeed ang mga mommies,” she noted.

The most common issue they encounter, Dra. Bigornia shared, is when mothers think that they cannot generate any or enough milk. That’s why for her, seminars are important to constantly educate mothers on how to produce milk and practice exclusive breastfeeding.

“Basta uma-attend sila…natuturuan sila kung paano magparami ng gatas, kung paano mag lactation massage, para magkaroon sila ng gatas,” she explained.

Attendee Mercy Lopez, BHW president of Barangay Bungad, says that BHWs visit lactating mothers in their homes and advise them to continue breastfeeding, especially when the mothers resume work after giving birth.

Another attendee, Ann Doroquez of Sitio Pajo, Barangay Baesa, who is pregnant with her first child, shares that the seminar helped assure her of the many benefits of mother’s milk.

“Kailangan po ng bata talaga ang (gatas) ng nanay para po maging malusog po ang anak. Di po pwedeng sa bote, kasi baka po makaapekto sa bata yung kung anu-anong gatas na bibilhin. Mas mabuti po sa nanay, para po yung resistensya po mapunta po sa bata,” Doroquez said.

“Bilang BHW ng Barangay Bungad, ang mensahe ko lang po kay Senadora Pia, ipagpatuloy lang po nila ang ganitong programa, lalo na po sa mga nanay na bagong panganak,” said BHW President Lopez.

The doctors of QCGH also thanked the senator on behalf of Mayor Joy Belmonte for choosing Quezon City as a venue for her breastfeeding awareness advocacy. #