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World record breastfeeding attempt this Friday morning
World record breastfeeding attempt this Friday morning
This Friday hundreds of women around New
Zealand will gather with babes in arms, aiming to break a
world record.
The Big Latch On happens on Friday
August 5 at 10.30am (New Zealand time) and women around the
world, and around the country, will meet in various
registered venues to breastfeed en-masse as part of World
Breastfeeding Week, which runs from Monday August 1 to
Sunday August 7.
The Big Latch On is organised by the
Women's Health Action Network.
In the Waikato at least
21 venues have registered for the Big Latch On, including
sites in Hamilton, Huntly, Te Awamutu, Otorohanga, Te Kuiti,
Thames, Waihi, Tokoroa, Morrinsville, Pirongia and Te
Aroha.
The Waikato District Health Board is supporting
World Breastfeeding Week, with several of its maternity
hospitals participating in the Big Latch On.
Waikato
DHB lactation consultant Alys Brown is hosting the Big Latch
On events at Waikato Hospital in two locations: the
hospital's postnatal ward (Ward 52) and in the Neonatal
Intensive Care Unit (NICU). Thames Hospital and Matariki
Birthing Unit (Te Awamutu) will also participate.
Read
more about our lactation consultants at http://www.waikatodhb.govt.nz/news/pageid/2145872131/Waikato_DHB_lactation_consultants_help_new_mums
Waikato
Hospital breastfeeding mothers and their babies at Waikato
Hospital can join in the record attempt in the lounge at
Ward 52, located in the Elizabeth Rothwell building off
Pembroke St.
There will be a morning tea at 10am with
a countdown to the Big Latch On at 10.30am.
The event
has been run in New Zealand for the past seven years, and
the number of participants has increased every
year.
"Every year we've broken the record," says
Brown, who says the increase in participants and venues
indicates the growing support for breastfeeding.
Some
654 women across New Zealand participated in 2005, and last
year that number was up to 1514.
There has also been
an increase in the number of venues over the past two years
(up to 21 this year, from 9 in 2009 and 15 in
2010).
For members of the public interested in
participating in the Big Latch On, local registered venues
include Westfield Chartwell's food court, Waterford Birthing
Centre and River Ridge East Birth Centre.
Hamilton's
refugee and migrant community are participating in the Big
Latch On for the first time at the Waikato Migrant Resource
Centre in Claudelands.
This year K'aute Pasifika
Services in Hamilton is involved again for the third time,
but for the first time they will be supporting the Samoan
community in Te Kuiti.
The Waikato District Health
Board will also be celebrating World Breastfeeding Week 2011
with special gifts for its youngest new patients.
The
Waikato DHB's Healthy Eating Healthy (HEHA) project is
giving baby bibs to all newborns delivered during the
week.
It's the fourth year HEHA has acknowledged
newborns with the bibs, which has the logo "My Breast
Friends".
ends
Waikato District Health Board
Healthy People. Excellent Care
Waikato District Health Board (DHB) employs over 6500 people and plans, funds and provides hospital and health services to more than 391,770 people in a region covering eight per cent of New Zealand.
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