Do we need HB3527?

About 2 weeks ago, I read an article in the Manila Bulletin about 2 solons filing a bill to encourage breastfeeding in the workplace. I didn't pay much attention to it because what was quoted in the news was already covered by Sen. Pia Cayetano's Expanded Breastfeeding Act of 2009. Last week, a researcher from Unang Hirit contacted me and asked me about this new bill. I asked her to send me a copy so I could compare the two bills.

The new bill filed by Malabon City Rep. Josephine Veronique R. Lacson-Noel and Cagayan de Oro Rep. Rufus Rodriguez is HB3527 or The Breastfeeding Act of 2010. HB3527's history shows that it was filed on 14 October 2010 and is currently with the Committee on Health as of 15 October 2010. According to the news, the main provision is "the mandatory creation of lactation facilities in all offices, both public and private, where nursing mothers can feed their children even during working hours".

However, let me quote Section 11 of Sen. Pia's bill:

"Sec. 11. Establishment of Lactation Stations. - It is hereby mandated that all health and non-health facilities, establishments or institutions shall establish lactation stations. The lactation stations shall be adequately provided with the necessary equipment and facilities, such as: lavatory for hand-washing, unless there is an easily-accessible lavatory nearby; refrigeration or appropriate cooling facilities for storing expressed breastmilk; electrical outlets for breast pumps; a small table; comfortable seats; and other items, the standards of which shall be defined by the Department of Health. The lactation station shall not be located in the toilet.

In addition, all health and non-health facilities, establishments or institutions shall take strict measures to prevent any direct or indirect form of promotion, marketing, and/or sales of infant formula and/or breastmilk substitutes within the lactation stations, or in any event or circumstances which may be conducive to the same.

Apart from the said minimum requirements, all health and non-health facilities, establishments or institutions may provide other suitable facilities or services within the lactation station, all of which, upon due substantiation, shall be considered eligible for purposes of Section 14 of this Act."

Doesn't that provision already cover the creation of lactation facilities in all offices? I checked HB3527 again to check other differences. I noticed that HB3527 is a mish-mash of both the Expanded Breastfeeding Act of 2009, The Rooming-in and Breastfeeding Act of 1992 (R.A. 7600) and even the Milk Code!

The novel provision I found in the proposed House Bill is that nursing in public is not indecent exposure:

Section 7. Not indecent exposure – No provision of law or ordinance on indecent exposure shall apply to breastfeeding an infant. A mother may breastfeed her baby in any location, public or private, where the mother is otherwise authorized to be, even if not done discreetly, irrespective of whether the nipple of the mother’s breast is uncovered during or incidental to the breastfeeding.

I know that advocates in other countries would be quite happy with this provision as several of them have encountered complaints/oppositions when they nurse in public. However, as I explained in the previous post, I generally have had good experiences when I nurse in public.

There is an interesting provision about the provision on weaning - Section 16, which states:

"Mothers shall be responsive to the needs of the child and shall allow their child to wean naturally. Weaning, as a personal decision to be made by each mother based on her particular family situation and individual circumstances, is recognized. Young children who nurse past their infancy have their own developmental timetables."

I'm happy that the proposed bill recognizes that weaning need not happen when mother goes back to work and that babies/children CAN nurse past infancy.

Now, let me get to the provisions of HB3527 which I don't like. First would be Section 8(d) on breastfeeding in the workplace. Under the proposed bill, "[e]mployers shall provide mothers with reasonable unpaid break time to express milk or breastfeed" Now, why would you take out a benefit which has been granted to moms in the current law? Under R.A. No. 10028, nursing employees are granted PAID milk expression time"

"Sec. 12. Lactation Periods. - Nursing employees shall granted break intervals in addition to the regular time-off for meals to breastfeed or express milk. These intervals, which shall include the time it takes an employee to get to and from the workplace lactation station, shall be counted as compensable hours worked. The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) may adjust the same:Provided, That such intervals shall not be less than a total of forty (40) minutes for every eight (8)-hour working period."

Whenever I talk about breastfeeding and the workplace in L.A.T.C.H. seminars, this is the provision that I emphasize one and what I believe is most applicable and helpful to working and breastfeeding moms. So I don't understand why the proponents of HB3527 seek to remove this benefit.

Another provision that I'm not too happy about is Sec. 28 on advertising - which specifically states that advertising for products intended for infants 0-6 months shall not be allowed BUT advertising for infants 6-12 months shall be allowed upon review and approval of the IAC. This is a dangerous provision - particularly now that milk companies are very careful. In fact, you do not see a lot of advertisements for formula milk for 6-12 month old babies. With this statement that formula ads for 6-12 month old babies are allowed (albeit with prior permission of the IAC). And for sure, the IAC will be inundated by applications for ads!

Finally, I'm a bit if-fy about this provision:

"Section 6. Mother's prerogative - Breastfeeding is the most elemental form of parental care. The decision to breastfeed is the sole prerogative of the mother. The decision to do otherwise must be based on an informed choice. In health care facilities, bottle feeding shall be allowed only after the mother has been informed by the attending health personnel of the advantages of breastfeeding and how to encourage and maintain lactation. The proper techniques of infant formula feeding shall be provided only after the mother has opted to adopt formula feeding for her infant."

I believe moms should be informed that it is their RIGHT to breastfeed and to obtain information how to be successful. It is difficult to protect breastfeeding when there is such as provision saying "the decision not to breastfeed must be based on an informed choice." Determining that a mom choosing to formula feed has made an "informed" choice is difficult. How many local hospital pay lip service to breastfeeding and just tell moms - hey breastfeed without telling them how or why? Recently, I know someone who gave birth to triplets and asked to see a lactation consultant at the hospital only to be told that the hospital had none. Her pediatrician was skeptical when she said that she would be breastfeeding the triplets. If this mother chooses to formula feed, can you then say that she has been given an informed choice?

I don't think that this new bill is necessary for the success of breastfeeding in the country. The Expanded Breastfeeding Act of 2009 has good provisions which just needs to be applied. In fact, almost 9 months after it has been signed, we are still waiting for the implementing rules and regulations to be released. Maybe focus on that and proper implementation is a more worthwhile experience for our politicians.

Breastfeed Anytime, Anywhere!

Last Tuesday, the Millennium Development Goals Achievement Fund/Philippines launched the Spotted: Mommy, Mama, Inay and Me, a photo exhibit to support, promote and protect exclusive breastfeeding and appropriate complementary feeding for a healthy child, family and community.

L.A.T.C.H. was one of the co-sponsors and I was able to get my husband Stan to take photos for the exhibit! It was no easy task since there were permits to get, schedules to coordinate BUT with Buding, Zeka and Anna at the helm of it, things fell into place and Stan was able to get wonderful photos of breastfeeding moms! I've heard to many moms say that they wish they could bring back their breastfeeding days and somehow have some memento of it. I'm proud to say that Stan has amassed more than a hundred photos of breastfeeding moms as I've emphasized that he needs to ask nursing moms if they'd like a breastfeeding photo every time he is commissioned for a family or portrait shoot.

I love the message being promoted by the exhibit - breastfeed anytime, anywhere. If we can eat anytime and anywhere we feel hungry, then there is no reason that nursing moms need to "hide" in bathroom to meet their babies' needs! The exhibit runs until 26 November 2010 at the SM Mall of Asia, Entertainment Mall (near Selecta Kids Station). Aside from Stan's photos, there are also photos taken by photography students of mothers in daycares and markets - doing their everyday activities, yet still being able to nourish their babies.

Meanwhile, I'm sharing a slideshow of "behind the scenes" photos and some of the photos not used for the exhibit.

L.A.T.C.H. has some more future projects involving photography and breastfeeding - so "LIKE" and stay tuned for further announcements in the L.A.T.C.H. FB page!

Dental Benefits of Breastfeeding

Guess what I found in my work email inbox last Wednesday from our medical/dental department?

I'm definitely glad that I'm part of an organization that supports breastfeeding!! Our next project? - on premises daycare for 0-6 children!

Breastfeeding Calendars for 2011

It's that time for the year again - for the hunt for new calendars! I was hoping that L.A.T.C.H. would be able to have its own breastfeeding calendar but events last year (Ondoy flood) cancelled those plans and this year, well, we were busy with other things. But - my husband has taken breastfeeding photos of several L.A.T.C.H.ers and I hope this calendar does become a reality soon!

Meanwhile, here are some of the breastfeeding calendars you can choose from for 2011.

Velvet & Vo'Gel

Top of the list would be Baby Milk Action's IBFAN 2011 Breastfeeding Calendar. Pinay breastfeeding advocate Velvet is featured in April 2011, with her then 1-year old daughter Vo'Gel. Each calendar is available for GBP9 (about 630pesos) for delivery outside the UK.

Another lovely calendar is The Beauty of Mothering calendar which is a collection of images of breastfeeding mothers and babies, paired with breastfeeding quotations and lunar cycles. The calendar costs USD$14.99 plus shipping of $4.99 within the US. I'm not quite sure if they ship internationally.

Over at Cafe Press, I found 2 interesting calendars. The first is a vertical wall calendar costing AUD26 made by Birth, Breastfeeding & Babywearing is more of a motherhood calendar of abstract images of pregnancy, birth and breastfeeding.

The second calendar is from Cafe LaLeche's Breastfeeding & Advocacy Shop. This calendar costs AUD23.50 and is filled with pastel paintings of nursing mothers and their babies.

Another Australian calendar is from the Australian Breastfeeding Association costing AUD16.95. What I love about this calendar is that it includes images of fathers (not breastfeeding of course :D) and families which were chosen from shots submitted to the Association.

Like the Australian Breastfeeding Association's calendar, the Sonoma County of California's 2011 Breastfeeding Calendar also comprises of submitted images from the Sonoma County 12th Annual Photography Contest for Positive Images of Breastfeeding. However, I don't think the calendar is available for online purchase although if you are from Sonoma County, you can get the calendar in 2011 at local community clinics, health provider offices and the Sonoma County's Public Health Office. There is also the breastfeeding calendar from the Prairie Village (Kansas) La Leche League Association which is their fund raiser for the fall. The calendar costs USD$18 and documents a "beautiful year of breastfeeding all age children, pumping and babywearing." Finally, Bosom Buddies of Mid-Essex has a 16-month calendar (July 2010 - December 2011) called The Breast of Essex to support the launch of East England Breastfeeding Framework. The calendar costs GBP5 and can be purchased through Paypal.

With all the variety of calendars available, you can certainly have 1 new calendar for almost each month of 2011! I would most likely buy IBFAN's calendar. Which one would you choose?

Ameda Elite Review and Blog Contest!

Congratulations to our winners!

Katherine Sicat

Cheng Duran

Laura Merwin

Thank you everyone for joining the giveaway!

I will email the winners for details on how to claim their certificates.

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My first experience with the Ameda Elite was because of Naima's jaundice/hospital stay. In Naima's hospital, moms could use the hospital-grade Ameda Elite pump to express milk for their sick babies. The Ameda Elite is attached to a stand that is wheeled over to the mom and is parked inside the baby's room for the duration of the hospital stay. The hospital also gave me two sets of flanges to use during the stay (and bring home).

Let me go over the features of the Ameda Elite pump and why I love this pump.

Long-Term Use

I bought my Elite off Ebay for about $275 back in October 2008. I had been back to work for about 3 months and got tired of lugging my portable Lansinoh (*see note below) to and from the office. According to Ameda's website, the Elite has "perfect engineering for long-term use, including establishing and maintaining milk product". The Elite is generally for hospital use but moms with preemies or multiples also usually purchase the Elite for home use.

In my case, my Elite was used from December 2008 - December 2009 - daily pumping (except weekends) for about 4 times, gradually winding down to once a day. My Elite is now with my sister who started using it in January 2010 and still uses it until now. I have to emphasize that since I purchased the from Ebay, it is a used item (previously owned by a hospital) so I'm not sure how long ago the Elite was purchased. However, according to my sister, it still works great until now. Compared to my Lansinoh portable pump, I will definitely say that the Elite is more durable and better for exclusively pumping moms wishing to establish and maintain milk supply.

*Note: If you are wondering why I bought Lansinoh pump when I used Ameda Elite in the hospital, it was because Lansinoh Double Electric Pump and Ameda Purely Yours (the portable pump of Ameda) used to be both manufactured by Hollisters. Lansinoh costs $125 (even $105) at Amazon while PY costs $150. Babymama carries both Lansinoh and Ameda PY pumps.

Custom Control

The Elite has two dials - one for vacuum and cycle. Vacuum refers to the strength of the sucking while cycle refers to the speed. There is no automatic setting as you start the pump by turning on the dials. According to Ameda, the purpose of the separate dials is to let "mothers 'follow their flow' to find their own most effective pump settings every time, and like a breastfeeding baby, achieve a "multi-phase" experience. Indeed, some days, I find myself putting the cycle on high while the vacuum stays low while some days, both are on high speed. Customized controls allow the moms to have complete control of her pumping experience simply through a slight turn of the dial. The Elite also allows you to single or double pump - which is quite helpful, especially if my daughter just nursed on 1 boob.

Powerful but Silent

I have pumped with a sleeping baby, sleeping siblings and husband, sleeping brother in law - all in the room - with the pump not raising any peep! Very quiet - a huge difference from my Lansinoh pump. The airconditioner and electric fan are noisier! You can hear the piston moving back and forth but that's about it - no motor sound at all. And despite being whisper quiet, it is one powerful pump with vacuum strength from 30-250mmHg and cycle speed of 30-60 cpm! When using my Lansinoh, I usually set the cycle/vacuum dials to full speed. But with the Elite, cycle is around 3/4 while the vacuum is midway. At my peak, I used to get a total of 4-6oz from both breasts with regular pumping intervals. I also love that the suction is not painful since I am able to adjust the strength to a tolerable level.

Power and Weight

Since my Elite was bought in the US, it needs to plugged on 110volts - so make sure that you tape the plug to a transformer - lest it be mistakenly plugged into our standard 220volts outlet. It also comes with a car adapter - which you plug into the lighter receptacle if you need to pump in your car. One disadvantage I can think of is the size and weight of this pump. The pump weighs about 6 pounds and with the carrying case, it is the size of a document box - about 5x9x12 - definitely not something you want to be lugging to and from work every day! If that is an issue, then you would be better off purchasing Ameda's Purely Yours pump - which is more portable.

Maintenance and Other Features

The Elite itself is very easy to clean. I just wipe it down with baby wipes at regular intervals. Meanwhile, since my pump was purchased 2nd hand, I had to purchase the flanges and milk collection kit. However, the purchase of a brand new Elite includes 1 set of HygieniKit Milk collection system. This is also another great thing about the Elite - moms can safely share 1 Elite pump, as long as each mom has her own HygieniKit.

In laymen's terms - the HygieniKit consists of 2 25mm breast flanges, 2 silicone diaphgrams, 2 120ml bottles, 4 white valves, 2 adapter caps, 2 silicone tubings, 2 lock-tight bottle caps plus instructions! Whew! That looks like a long list of equipment for this pump - but it is there for a reason! Ameda touts its HygieniKits as being "the world's first milk collection system with a Proven Airlock Protection barrier" - which means that the diaphragm keeps the air from your pump from coming in contact with the milk! Indeed - I've never had to clean the tubing of my Ameda (and Lansinoh pumps) as neither milk nor moisture has ever gotten into the tubing.

Also, don't be overwhelmed by the number of parts to clean! Check out my tips on how I cleaned pump parts while expressing milk at work.

What moms need to be concerned of when using the HygieniKit though would be those white valves. Just a little tear on those valves results in a drastic change in suction and resulting milk output! This is why there are 4 valves included in the kit, although you only use 2 at a time. I highly suggest that moms keep extra valves on hand. Some valves last me 3 months only while the longest I have used valves without changing would be 8 months.

The Elite also comes with 2 bottle holders which are perfectly sized for the Ameda collection bottles but are too big for my Snappies. When using the Ameda bottles, you won't have to worry that your bottles will topple over, resulting in spilled breast milk (wah)!

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I am excited to announce that the Ameda Elite is now locally available at an introductory price of P50,000 through Babymama! As the authorized dealer, the Ameda Purely Yours pumps come with a 1 year warranty while the Ameda Elite has 3 years warranty. Plus, Babymama carries not only the Ameda pumps but accessories as well!! To celebrate the launch of Ameda in the Philippines, Babymama is sponsoring this blog contest with three winners! Each winner will get a Php1,000 gift certificate which they can use for their Ameda purchase over at Babymama.

How to join this contest?

To enter, fill out the form below. You can also get extra entries (total of 4 entries) by:

1. Becoming a fan of Chronicles of a Nursing Mom and Babymama on Facebook.
2. Tweeting this giveaway (copy and tweet this: @crazydigger Win a Babymama P1000 Gift Certificate http://bit.ly/9DzFZx)
3. Blogging about the giveaway (please leave a link to your blog entry)

You only need to fill up the form once, as long as you filled up the relevant boxes. For example, if you like the pages, become a fan and blog, you need to fill up all the boxes in the form for your entries to count. I know that this is a bit tedious but it helps me validate the entries correctly.

This contest is open to readers within the Philippines and the certificates will be shipped to you using local courier. Contest will end on 4 December 2010 at 11:59PM. Names of winners will be posted in this entry and will be contacted by email. Please respond within 48 hours – otherwise, I will choose another winner. Three winners will be chosen using Naima tambiolo.

Now, go enter the contest!!