Don’t be alarmed if you hear a giant sucking sound on Aug. 6—it’s just the sound of contented babies taking part in the national Big Latch On.
The Big Latch On is the culmination of the 20th annual World Breastfeeding Week, Aug. 1-6, an international commemoration of the 1990 Innocenti Declaration. That document, written and adopted by the World Health Organization and UNICEF, recognized the many benefits of breastfeeding, both for children and their families; a later version, adopted in 2005, set goals for improving breastfeeding rates worldwide, including supporting mothers and establishing an international code for marketers of baby formula.
The Big Latch On calls for moms and babies to gather together in various public spots for one giant, communal nursing fest. Organizers hope to set a record for the most women breastfeeding simultaneously around the world. (The number to beat: 9,826 nursing moms, spread across 16 countries, were counted by witnesses in an event last fall.)
Valley babies (and moms) who want in on the action can join a Big Latch On event at Northampton’s Cooley Dickinson Hospital on Saturday, Aug. 6. Participants should gather in the hospital’s main lobby at 10 a.m. The Big Latch On will take place in the atrium outside the Childbirth Center, with the official count at 10:30. The hospital will also hold a raffle and provide information about breastfeeding as part of the event.
“Breastfeeding contributes to the normal growth and development of babies,” the hospital notes in an announcement of the event. “Babies who are not breastfed are at increased risk of infant morbidity and mortality, adult obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease and osteoporosis, and breastfed babies and their mothers have less risk of pre-menopausal breast cancer and ovarian cancer.”
CDH has a good track record of supporting new moms in breastfeeding. In 2010, 91 percent of Cooley babies were breastfeeding at the time they were discharged from the hospital. Overall, Massachusetts has higher breastfeeding rates than the national average: according to a report card released last year by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 77.6 percent of babies born here are breastfed at birth, (compared to 75 percent nationally), and 50.1 percent are still breastfeeding at six months (the national figure is 43 percent). Underlying the promising initiation rates, though, is data showing that many mothers don’t stick with breastfeeding, at least not as long as medical experts recommend.
“High breastfeeding initiation rates show that most mothers in the United States want to breastfeed and are trying to do so,” the report noted. “However, even from the very start, mothers may not be getting the breastfeeding support they need. Low breastfeeding rates at 3, 6, and 12 months illustrate that mothers continue to face multiple barriers to breastfeeding.”
For more information about the Big Latch On, go to www.biglatchon.org. For information about breastfeeding support services at CDH, go to www.cooley-dickinson.org/services/childbirth or call 413-582-2096.
—Maureen Turner
mturner@valleyadvocate.com
