Celebrating 15 years of 'Latching On'

On Friday, August 2nd and Saturday, August 3rd of 2019, somewhere near you, parents will be gathering…..

Pioneered by Women’s Health Action, the Big Latch On is an event that has been working to create a supportive breastfeeding culture in Aotearoa for fifteen years.

"We are proud of how the Big Latch On has grown over time," says Isis McKay, Women's Health Action's General Manager. What started as a Guinness World Record attempt to have the largest simultaneous breastfeed in in 2005, has become an inclusive and supportive event. The event went Global in 2011, and now has 60,0000 people participating in over 28 countries. With over 80 venues already registered in New Zealand alone (even in the Chatham Islands!) it is shaping up to be a great event.

Although the event started as a part of World Breastfeeding Week celebrations, it has grown way past that. "The Big Latch On welcomes and all parents, no matter what their infant feeding journey's look like" Say's Isis, "This event is all about connecting parents with positive peer to peer and professional support, parenthood can be a difficult time, and it's common to feel isolated, the Big Latch On is the ideal place to build relationships and community"

If people can't make it to a venue, they can take part in the #BigLatchOnNZ online with the #HowWeLatch campaign "We want to flood the internet with hundreds of images showing all the beautiful way's we nurture our babies/children" Says Isis. From Friday, August 2nd through to Sunday, August 4th hundreds of photos will be posted to Facebook @BigLatchOnNZ Instagram @Thebiglatchonnz and on Twitter @LatchOnNz

While the world record wasn’t broken that day 15 years ago, something important was born, an annual celebration of the joy and labour of nurturing our babies.

To find out more about the Big Latch On visit www.biglatchon.org.nz.

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