It was just five years ago that a large group of women and I made it into the Guinness Book of World Records. We had some help from our babies. I was one of 1,135 women breastfeeding simultaneously during World Breastfeeding Week in 2002.
It was a huge stretch for me to attend the event and that fact is what probably makes the memory so special. I was still sleep deprived and recovering from Frederick's newborn feeding problems. Some details of the feeding story are chronicled in the book.
I had a report due for work in about a week and decided "The client will not notice if the report is a couple of days late."
I was right about the client and made what I consider to be a great self-centered decision to attend the event planned by the Alameda Public Health Department. It was a four hour drive to Berkeley. My mom and I packed up Frederick and hit the road.
The drive itself is worthy of a story in itself with missed turns, emergency bathroom stops, and my first breastfeeding-in-public experience at what I call a "Cowboy Restaurant."
Excitement
We arrived at Martin Luther King Junior Park and milled in the Farmer's Market with many other parents and babies.
"What time is it?" I asked one man in the market.
"11:30. Just an hour before the breastfeeding."
I chuckled. The park was filled with families with a single purpose.
Musicians played in the park.
It was Frederick's first time out of the house and his first experience facing forward in the Baby Bjorn. He was beside himself with excitement an wearing his new white hat.
His excitement showed and he got many comments from passers-by. He was one very excited baby in a sea of babies and mamas.
The time came and moms were shepherded into an auditorium. No strollers or traveling partners were allowed, so moms of multiples or of a lot of baby gear worked to gather the essentials and take them into the auditorium. The number of strollers parked outside the auditorium was mind-boggling.
The mother of a toddler was feeding the toddler in the isle, getting him ready to wash down his snack.
Moms with their babies were seated every-other-seat in every-other-row. The organizers left plenty of room between moms so that they could make their official count.
You could see the excitement among the organizers as women piled into the auditorium. The previous record set in Australia was 536 women but just two days before another group of Australian women set a new record with 747 women breastfeeding simultaneously. The challenge was all over the news. As more women poured into the auditorium, the organizers knew they could break the record and they began to take the counting very seriously. They also had to fill some of those empty rows.
A woman played folk music as the organizers worked with the counters and official observers. The auditorium was strangely quiet for being a room filled with over 1135 adults and even more babies when you count the twins and other tandem nursers. But then again, content babies do not tend to make a lot of noise.
One, two, three, latch!
The event began and organizer Ellen Sirbu made a speech about the importance of breastfeeding. She explained the rules of the count:
"Baby must be latched and appear to be sucking."
When "the count" would begin, counters would walk down the empty isles checking for latched and apparently sucking babies. They would do a count twice and take the higher of the two counts.
After explaining the rules, the organizer exclaimed with great flare:
"One, two, three, latch!"
And over eleven hundred babies nursed at the same time.
After the two counts, we were told that we likely broke the record and that they would announce the actual count in a couple of hours. We streamed out of the auditorium, gathered a collectible t-shirt, and headed back to the park. Dads, grandmas, grandpas, friends, and partners waited outside to greet us, admire our t-shirts, and take pictures. We took a picture apparently to memorialize my exhaustion.
In the park we were greeted by a jazz band with a fantastic woman lead. Moms and dads danced with their babies. The party atmosphere of the day is memorable. The jazz singer talked about the importance of breastfeeding between songs.
1135 Women
Babies began to tire and the park slowly emptied. Probably only a few hundred of us remained to hear the official count:
1135 women breastfed simultaneously on August 3, 2002 in Berkeley, California.
Official observers verified the count and it would be submitted to the Guinness Book of World Records.
We held the record until the spring of 2006 when it was broken by 3,738 women in Manila. I wish I had been in Manila for that great day.
One of these days, some very ambitious event planner will decide to take on a new record-breaking bash and, if at that time, you happen to be lactating, I highly recommend attending.
Even in the midst of postpartum depression, missing work deadlines and sleep, I am glad I set those two days aside to participate in such a wonderful event. You may find yourself the topic of local discussion, but of course, that would give you more opportunity to talk about the benefits of breastfeeding. Or when they say "Oh, you were one of those women," you can smile and say "Yes, I was."
Thank you to the organizers for a great memory.
Comments (1)
I'm glad to see the upswing in attention brestfeeding is getting today. In 1975 after my first son was born, the ladies of our local La Leche League had an event to raise awareness of the benefits of brestfeeding at an area mall. Even the news was there, it was very exciting. I remember the cameraman saying to the ladies, "The hand that rocks the cradle rules the world." That was inspiring to hear. I think about 30 of us participated, at that time brestfeeding had really fallen out of favor.
Posted by Barbara Harris | August 10, 2007 10:33 AM
Posted on August 10, 2007 10:33