Take the title of this post as a forewarning. This will be a long post and I can’t help it. To share my story of how I became a breastfeeding advocate is like telling the story of my life. I consider my advocacy for breastfeeding to be the seed of my work and life:) Hope you’ll find this interesting somehow…
14 years ago, I became a mother for the first time. Though totally inexperienced, I was ready to apply everything I read in the books. How to swaddle, how to bathe him, how to change his nappies, how to put him to sleep, how to breastfeed. It wasn’t an easy first weeks in my new role, it was tiring physically but amidst all the bustle of these days with my newborn, i found our breastfeeding moments to be the peaceful bonding moments between me and my son.
Amidst these moments, specially in the beginning, I experienced challenges- nipple confusion, being unsure of my milk supply, engorgement, pumping and storing of my breastmilk, etc etc etc. During that time, there was very little support available to new mothers, i had to rely on an exchange of emails between me and the La Leche League counselor in the US. My LLLI counselor would patiently answer all my questions and assuage my insecurities. Albeit it was very helpful and comforting to have someone to “talk to” about my nursing challenges, it wasn’t ideal to be relying on someone long distance and in a different time zone. These personal challenges and knowing what services and breastfeeding products were available abroad was the inspiration behind our first business venture between me and my cousin Candice. We took the big leap into mompreneurship (a term that was unheard of at that time!) and set up our own line of breastfeeding apparel called Mommy Matters. We wanted to provide moms here with breastfeeding-friendly apparel, and through our research and touching base with moms at that time, we realized that I wasn’t alone in my need for support and information. So we decided to make it our mission to include advocacy work amidst our entrepreneurial endeavors.
Soon after we set up Mommy Matters, we were drawn to other like-minded moms and some of the most active mompreneurs at that time, Joanna Ongpin-Duarte and Vicky Powell-Jalandoni of The Big & Small Co, Tesa & Rico Geronimo of Mommy Academy and none other than now-honorable Senator Pia Cayetano, who owned a chain of developmental toy stores then, Maxibear and Maxitoylab.
The Moms T.E.A.M.- Vicky and Joanna of Big & Small, Tesa of Mommy Academy, now-honorable Senator Pia of Maxibear, Candy & I of Mommy Matters
Together, we formed the MOMS T.E.A.M. (Moms Towards Educated and Active Motherhood) and we started doing pocket talks for breastfeeding which eventually grew bigger and more active because of the demands and requests of our mom-attendees themselves.
Our first event together was entitled “Moms in the new Millennium”, year 2000 (11 years ago!) held at the Discovery Suites in Pasig. The Moms T.E.A.M. eventually started doing mall events, parenting talks, and so many other events, together and individually, and this created an active community of moms and families as far back as 10 years ago.
Pia, me and Joanna with the Discovery Suites representative
Mommy Matters would also partner with breastfeeding support group Best Friends in Breastfeeding composed of Cris Rosenthal, who was also a doula back then, Dr. Patricia Kho, and Jane Cacacho, Abbie Yabot (now of the Breastfeeding Club), and Marnie Matta.Also part of our group was the Philippine Association for Childbirth Education, Rome Kanapi and Lin Fernando, who were pre-natal educators. Together we would organize an event called “Celebrating Motherhood through Breastfeeding” every August, which was World Breastfeeding Month, where we would invite celebrity moms to give their personal testimonials about breastfeeding and parenting.
Our BF advocate partners, Lin and Rome of PACE, Jane, Pat, Cris, Abbie and Marnie of Best Friends in Breastfeeding and Candy & I (Mommy Matters)
With the 5 years that we had this event, we were able to guest moms like Daphne Osena, Christine Jacob, Suzi Abrera (with husband Paolo giving his testimonial as a Dad giving support to his nursing wife), Dyan Castillejo, Panjee Gonzales, Regine Tolentino, Kara Magsanoc-Alikpala, Daphne Osena, Regine Tolentino, Ces Drilon.
Dyan Castillejo with son Matthew, Panjee Gonzales
