A Florida woman spearheaded a push to set the world record for most women breastfeeding simultaneously, and at 10:30 am yesterday, success!
“The Big Latch-On” succeeded in getting 60 women to simultaneously breastfeed their babies, garnering a world record, although 60 seems like a pretty small number considering the number of babies in the world and the fact that at any given second, it’s probably likely that about that many women are breastfeeding. But I digress!
The purpose of the event, which coincided with World Breastfeeding Week, wasn’t necessarily to break a record, but rather to normalize the act of public breastfeeding.
“Breast-feeding is normal and healthy,” said Magen Gilbreath, 27, of New Port Richey, who organized the Largo latch-on, held in conjunction with a family fun day hosted by the nonprofit Tampa Bay Birth Network. “Normalizing it is pretty important.”
Gilbreath explains that she often gets dirty looks while breastfeeding in public, and that serves to discourage other women from doing something that should actually be encouraged.
Local Women Promote Breastfeeding in World Record Attempt [St. Petersburg Times]