The Big Latch On
On August 4th, I had the opportunity to take part in “The Global Big Latch On”, a worldwide event that caps World Breastfeeding Week.
The Global Big Latch On is a worldwide celebration that takes place at an exact time of day, 8/4/18 from 10:30 AM MT to 10:31 AM MT, so that women worldwide can synchronize the latching of their babies for breastfeeding promotion and support.
The Global Big Latch On started in 2010 in New Zealand and has grown from 2 countries with 2,000 breastfeeding babies to, this year, 28 countries with nearly 21,000 babies latched. The aims of the event are to provide support for communities to identify and grow the opportunities to provide on-going breastfeeding support, raise awareness of breastfeeding support and knowledge, help communities positively support breastfeeding in public, normalize breastfeeding, and ensure communities have the resources to advocate for breastfeeding support.
As a member of the Binational Breastfeeding Coalition, with whom I am doing my practicum, I was part of the efforts to coordinate this event in El Paso. It was important for us to make this a worthwhile event and achieve the aims described above. We did this by recruiting a variety of support services to set up tables at the event, such as hospitals, WIC, dentists, nutritionists, etc, and by putting together educational materials and breastfeeding awareness “goodies” for all latching mothers.
(Above) The Binational Breastfeeding Coalition members at the Big Latch On
On the day of the event, my primary duty was to collect surveys from latching mothers. With my practicum supervisor, we had put together a demographic survey complete with questions used to determine the feasibility of a milk bank in El Paso based on the perception of a breastfeeding mother. With a Spanish-speaking partner, we used an iPad and a QR code to collect 47 surveys (~80% of total participants) in the span of about 2 hours. My practicum supervisor and I will be going over this data to discuss if the population that attended our event are reflective of the El Paso population or if we need to do more to reach populations who may not have the same access to breastfeeding support and health services.
This was a great event and I look forward to participating again next year! My 14 month old daughter, Ella, patiently allowed me to wear her on my back for the event and we were able to latch with the community. Although I am not particularly comfortable latching in public, doing so surrounded by 60 other mamas was a breeze and put me at ease!
(Above) Ella and I with the Big Latch On poster