Determined to bring to bare the benefits of mother’s milk, a group of lactating mothers, ranging from housewives to lawyers, have come upfront to model with their breast-fed children for the “MummysMilk 2003 Breastfeeding Calendar”. The first of its kind to be published in Singapore, this calendar features breast-feeding mothers in action, with their infants latched on to them and suckling happily.

Single mother Ginny Phang, 25, who conceived the idea, initially wanted to take some snapshots of her breastfeeding her 18-month-old son “to commemorate this special nursing relationship we share”.

The idea then took on a life of its own and evolved into a calendar to educate the public on how breast-feeding is both natural and ideal for mother and child.

“My aim is to educate mothers and mothers-to-be that breastfeeding can be done anywhere, anytime, in almost any clothing and done discreetly too,” Ms Phang told Today.

“I don’t think this can be considered ‘exposure’ at all. It’s a matter of perception whether breasts are seen as a natural source of food or as something sexual,” she added.

Quite an eye-opener for most will be Miss September, Dr Amy Chin-Atkin, who is featured “tandem nursing”, that is, breast-feeding both her children, aged 18 months and four-and-a-half years, at the same time.

Her husband, Mr David Atkin, supports the calendar project.

“What can be more natural and beneficial than a mother breast-feeding her child?” he said.

Besides building a stronger immune system for the child, mothers who breast-feed also tend to lose weight more easily.

Despite the wholesome goodness of breast milk, most babies in Singapore are not breast-fed for more than a year, according to Mrs Michelle Lam, president of the Breastfeeding Mothers’ Support Group (Singapore).

The need to keep abreast with the demands of the workplace has led to abrupt weaning by working mothers.

“This may lead to trauma in children who are not yet ready to be weaned,” said Mrs Lam.

“There are also too many commercial infant formula advertisements misleading many mothers to believe that they are incapable of producing milk for their babies and need to rely on formulas,” said Ms Phang.

Ms Phang and her group of lactating activists have pledged part of the proceeds to the La Leche League, which is an international breastfeeding organisation.

The group has published 500 calendars.

You may order them at $15 each from www.mummysmilk.com/bfgcalendar.html

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