Local women latch on for support

August is National Breastfeeding Month, and on Aug. 6, a sunny Saturday afternoon, a handful of mothers met at Eisenhower Park to breast-feed their babies in an event known as Big Latch On.

In an attempt to enhance awareness and acceptance of breast-feeding — and to break the Guinness world record for the most women breast-feeding at the same time — Big Latch On events took place at the same time around the world. An estimated 4,123 mother-child pairs in 294 locations worldwide took part.

Courtney La Rosa was one of many women who wanted to host one of the events. La Rosa, the founder of Mother’s Milk, a Long Island group, and her friends considered hosting the event in a member’s backyard, but ultimately decided to breast-feed in a public venue, Eisenhower Park.

Nestled on blankets on the grass, the women held their children close and began breast-feeding them at 10:30 a.m. Six nursing mothers, caring for children ranging in age from 7 months to 3 years, participated in the Big Latch On in the park, but La Rosa hopes for a better showing next year.

“I didn’t know about the event until a few days beforehand,” she said. She simply asked a few friends and Mother’s Milk members to join.

La Rosa, who initiating the Mother’s Milk Meetup in 2007, explained that she and some friends were all first-time mothers and looking for breast-feeding support. The Long Island group, she said, “focuses on advocating for breast-feeding, providing helpful information to mothers just starting their nursing relationship and a place for extended breast-feeding moms to find advice and encouragement.” La Rosa said it took commitment, patience and tears before her newborn son would latch on.

“Breast-feeding started with six weeks of pain and tears,” she said, explaining how her hospital nurses wanted her to attempt bottle-feeding. “He didn’t want that either,” she recalled of her now 4-year-old son, Tyler, and she is very glad she continued to seek support and resources. She breast-fed Tyler for more than three years.

While extended breast-feeding may surprise or alarm some, the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends breast-feeding for a minimum of one year, and the World Health Organization supports continued breast-feeding for at least two years in combination with appropriate complementary food.

Breast-feeding prevents an extensive list of diseases in both mother and child, explained Kathy Concelik, a certified postpartum doula, a breastfeeding peer support counselor and a Long Island leader in the La Leche League, an international nonprofit organization that promotes breast-feeding. “Breast-feeding is my life,” said Concelik, adding that children who are not breast-fed are at an increased risk of obesity, diabetes, certain cancers including leukemia, ear infections, diarrhea and upper respiratory infections.

Additionally, the WHO website states, “A lack of exclusive breastfeeding during the first six months of life contributes to over a million avoidable child deaths each year.”

The longer a woman breast-feeds, the more benefits for mother and baby, Concelik said. A mother who breast-feeds helps her baby build up his or her immune system by delivering disease-fighting antibodies, while simultaneously decreasing her own risk of developing breast, uterine or ovarian cancer, osteoporosis and multiple sclerosis.

Concelik explained that breast milk provides children with essential nutrients and additional benefits that a doctor-recommended beverage such as Pedialyte can not match.

La Rosa has sometimes been offered a secluded area to breast-feed, which initially embarrassed her, she acknowledges that they meant well. “Breasts are still considered sexual and some onlookers will stare,” she said. “The mother doesn’t want it; the baby doesn’t know.”

For this reason, La Rosa said, she will continue to support breast-feeding mothers. “Breast are there for a reason,” Concelik added. “They were not put there by Playboy.”

While the Big Latch On came nowhere near the world record for simultaneous breast-feeding — held by 15,128 mother-child pairs in 295 locations in the Philippines — it was the first simultaneous international breast-feeding awareness event. Started in New Zealand, the Big Latch On spread to Portland, Ore., last year. This year, with assistance from the La Leche League, the event attracted participants in cities throughout the U.S., Puerto Rico, Great Britain, Italy and Australia.

For additional breast-feeding information or support, call the National Breastfeeding Help Hotline at (800) 994-9662.