Hakab Na! breastfeeding event to be held August 1

August is National Breastfeeding Awareness Month—and the month in which the third Hakab Na!, the simultaneous breastfeeding event, will be held in several locations across the country to raise awareness about the benefits of breastfeeding.

To be hosted by online support group Breastfeeding Pinays, Hakab Na! will bring together breastfeeding moms and their families, supporters and lactation experts at an event at 500 Shaw Centrum, Shaw Blvd., Mandaluyong City on Saturday, August 1. The event will have a bazaar and will feature talks on breastfeeding and child care.

Nationwide, the Philippine part of the Big Latch On—a simultaneous breastfeeding even held around the world—will be held in Alabang, Aklan, Baguio-Benguet, Bulacan, Dumaguete, Isabela, Laguna, Nueva Ecija, Pampanga, and Zambales on that day.

This will be the third year the Hakab Na! mass breastfeeding event will be held. It was first held in the cities of Manila, Bacolod, Cagayan de Oro and Davao City simultaneously on August 3, 2013.

This year, the focus will be on working moms. Republic Act 10028, or the Expanded Breastfeeding Promotion Act of 2009, requires establishments and workplaces to have lactaction stations—"private, clean, sanitary, and well-ventilated rooms or areas...where nursing mothers can wash up, breastfeed or express their milk comfortably and store this afterward." Employees who are nursing must also be granted a break of at least 40 minutes every eight-hour period to breastfeed or to express milk. — BM, GMA News

Go to the Breastfeeding Pinays Facebook page for details on registering for Hakab Na!