The EcoWaste Coalition joins the Department of Health, United Nations Children’s Fund, World Alliance for Breastfeeding Action, and all women and communities across the globe in celebrating the World Breastfeeding Week from August 1 to 7.
As believers and advocates of ecological living, we uphold breastfeeding as an irreplaceable factor in building healthy relationships not only between mothers and their children, but also between Mother Nature and humans.
One of the greatest gifts of motherhood is the ability to provide complete nourishment to one’s young through the miracle of breast milk. Every time a woman uses this natural gift, it is an act that brings manifold benefits to the child, the mother, and even to our fragile environment. Breast milk requires no wasteful packaging nor feeding gadgets, and causes no climate changing emissions that despoil the environment.
Totally unlike infant milk formula, breastfeeding does not destroy and convert forests into grazing lands, dig up mountains to produce tin cans, chop trees to make paper for labels, boxes and marketing gimmicks, nor burn fossil fuels for manufacturing and transportation.
We laud Sen. Pia Cayetano, Rep. Risa Hontiveros-Baraquel and other lawmakers for seeking legislation that will support the expanded promotion of breastfeeding, strengthen the implementation of the Milk Code, and provide public information and education on the disadvantages and hazards of infant milk formula.
As we thank God for this generous and healing gift to babies, mothers and Mother Nature, we ask the entire society to ensure that breastfeeding is vigilantly protected, promoted and supported. Let us act together to effectively counter the social pressure that has led to the decline in breastfeeding among Filipino women. — GIGIE CRUZ EcoWaste Coalition, Unit 320, Eagle Court, 26 Matalino St., Quezon City