Manila: Over 2,000 lactating mothers simultaneously breastfed their babies on Sunday during the Phillippines' biggest annual breastfeeding event 'Hakab Na' in Manila.
The event aims to spread awareness about the benefits of breastfeeding children.
Hakab Na organizer, Normi Alvaira-Herrera said, "Hakab Na is an annual event that we hold. So it's spearheaded by breastfeeding pinays (Filipino women group) as part of our celebrating for the breastfeeding awareness month. So we hold this every month during August to gather the mothers and their families to show solidarity that breastfeeding is best for babies, and its a very normal and natural act that is given and blessed to us by God."
The World Health Organization recommends babies to be exclusively breastfed by their mothers during the first six months of their lives.
UNICEF's Chief of Health and Nutrition, Dr. Wigdan Madani said that 2018 data showed only 29% of Filipino children were breastfed up until six months of age.
Madani added, "This is really low coverage for a middle-income country."
World Breastfeeding Week is celebrated from August 1 to August 7 every year to mark the anniversary of the Innocenti Declaration. However, some countries choose to celebrate it at different times of the year.
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