FILIPINA physician Dr. Elvira L.Henares-Esguerra is a trailblazer – an innovative leader in her field, striking out on new ground and blazing a trail for others to follow. No wonder, she has been the recipient of international awards and honors for her work many times over.
Dr. Henares-Esguerra is a practicing dermatologist, a registered pharmacist, and an international board certified lactation consultant. She is a strong supporter of public health, embracing the concerns of all humanity, but she is best known as a staunch advocate of breastfeeding as the most far-reaching and cost-efficient strategy to alleviate poverty.
Elvira founded Children for Breastfeeding, Inc. in 2004 to promote, protect and support breastfeeding.
A member of the US-based Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine, Dr. Esguerra established the Philippine Academy of Lactation Consultants, Inc., an affiliate of the Philippine Medical Association, to institute breastfeeding as part of the medical curriculum and continuing medical education of physicians. In 2006, she established the Philippine Lactation Resource and Training Center to create training standards and school curricula on breastfeeding counseling, and to train breastfeeding counselors, advocates and milk code monitors.
Elvira Esguerra landed in the Guinness Book of Records in 2006, for gathering 3,541 mothers, the most number of women breastfeeding simultaneously in one site by organizing the event, in partnership with the City of Manila.
The feat was repeated in 2007, breaking the same Guinness world record for gathering 15,128 mothers breastfeeding in 295 sites in the country, in partnership with the Department of Social Welfare and Development.
In the same year, Elvira achieved another first when she amazingly initiated the first-ever Synchronized Breastfeeding Worldwide event to promote breastfeeding as still being best for babies. Mothers from 21 countries such as Argentina, Australia, Bangladesh, Cameroon, Canada, Colombia, Cyprus, Dominican Republic, Greece, Hong Kong, India, Ireland, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, Singapore, the United States, Uganda, the United Kingdom, and Ukraine participated in the event.
The record-breaking event was featured in many leading news media such as Time Magazine which referred to Henares-Esguerra as an advocate who has helped make the Philippines, which has one of Asia’s highest birthrates, one of the leaders in the international legal effort to support women’s right to breastfeed. Esguerra’s Synchronized Breastfeeding Worldwide event has since then become a form of an annual celebration during World Breastfeeding Week every first week of August.
Dr. Henares-Esguerra is a practicing dermatologist, a registered pharmacist, and an international board certified lactation consultant. She is a strong supporter of public health, embracing the concerns of all humanity, but she is best known as a staunch advocate of breastfeeding as the most far-reaching and cost-efficient strategy to alleviate poverty.
Elvira founded Children for Breastfeeding, Inc. in 2004 to promote, protect and support breastfeeding.
A member of the US-based Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine, Dr. Esguerra established the Philippine Academy of Lactation Consultants, Inc., an affiliate of the Philippine Medical Association, to institute breastfeeding as part of the medical curriculum and continuing medical education of physicians. In 2006, she established the Philippine Lactation Resource and Training Center to create training standards and school curricula on breastfeeding counseling, and to train breastfeeding counselors, advocates and milk code monitors.
Elvira Esguerra landed in the Guinness Book of Records in 2006, for gathering 3,541 mothers, the most number of women breastfeeding simultaneously in one site by organizing the event, in partnership with the City of Manila.
The feat was repeated in 2007, breaking the same Guinness world record for gathering 15,128 mothers breastfeeding in 295 sites in the country, in partnership with the Department of Social Welfare and Development.
In the same year, Elvira achieved another first when she amazingly initiated the first-ever Synchronized Breastfeeding Worldwide event to promote breastfeeding as still being best for babies. Mothers from 21 countries such as Argentina, Australia, Bangladesh, Cameroon, Canada, Colombia, Cyprus, Dominican Republic, Greece, Hong Kong, India, Ireland, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, Singapore, the United States, Uganda, the United Kingdom, and Ukraine participated in the event.
The record-breaking event was featured in many leading news media such as Time Magazine which referred to Henares-Esguerra as an advocate who has helped make the Philippines, which has one of Asia’s highest birthrates, one of the leaders in the international legal effort to support women’s right to breastfeed. Esguerra’s Synchronized Breastfeeding Worldwide event has since then become a form of an annual celebration during World Breastfeeding Week every first week of August.
Dr. Esguerra said the purpose of her work is to encourage breastfeeding everywhere in the world and promote thanksgiving for the gift of motherhood and breastfeeding. “We also aim to promote it as the only perfect means to nurture our children to better health, and as the most far-reaching and cheapest strategy for the alleviation of poverty. This is especially urgent in an impoverished Third World country inveigled by propaganda to use its meager resources to import formula milk from cows at the cost of its health, and abandoning breastfeeding which is free and nutritious unlike formula milk,” explained Dr. Esguerra.
In 2008, Elvira was honored as one of the Ten Outstanding Physicians of the Philippines. Also in 2008, she won the World Alliance for Breastfeeding Action (WABA) Gold Medal for launching the “Breastfeeding Olympics” in Beijing, China.
She was appointed as special envoy, ambassador of goodwill for Infant and Young Child Feeding by the President of the Philippines. As envoy, she presented the Kennedy family with a presidential award honoring the late US Senator Ted Kennedy for his role in initiating the passage of an international code on the marketing of breast milk substitutes.
Elvira has also established the Grand Coalition Against Corporate Greed to counter the financial might of milk and tobacco companies, and inspired the Philippines’ largest mall chain, SM Supermalls, to put up breastfeeding stations in all of its 34 malls nationwide.
During the recent 2010 Awarding Ceremonies of Soroptomist International, women who have worked at their best to improve the lives of other women were honored. The 95,000-member organization from 120 countries awarded Dr. Elvira Henares-Esguerra for her advocacy work.
“The birth of the breastfeeding movement, like the birth of a nation, like the birth of a baby, is a mixture of pain and joy. In such a birth, the pain rises sharply until it is almost unbearable, then it slowly fades away. The miracle of birth is such that when the pain passes, only the joy remains,” Dr. Esguerra said.
Through the work of Dr. Elvira Henares-Esguerra and other advocates like her, the Philippines got the highest rating from the International Baby Food Network (IBFAN) having “implemented most of the Code and subsequent World Health Assembly resolutions by means of a comprehensive law, decree or other legally enforceable measure.” Developed countries Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore and Taiwan come in low, having only instituted a few voluntary provisions, and the US is – in the words of IBFAN founder Annelies Allain – “at the bottom of the pile.” Its position in the lowest category 9 indicates that the country has taken no action to implement laws that would protect breastfeeding or restrict the marketing practices of the formula-milk companies.
Esguerra’s passion for breastfeeding has perhaps been exemplified best when she didn’t hesitate to nurse her child in front of an audience of 700 as she shared the stage with Philippines’ President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in 2005, as reported in Time. “You should have seen the [officers],” says Henares-Esguerra, recalling the moment her four-year-old son ran to the stage during the President’s speech to inaugurate World Breastfeeding Week in the Philippines. “They all wanted to rush and catch him. But they were too slow.”
Asked how breastfeeding advocates in other nations can follow her country’s example, Henares-Esguerra has this advice: “Promotion, protection, and support. You have to do all three together – you can’t do one without the other.”
The Philippines and mothers everywhere have Esguerra and advocates like her to be grateful for – people who believe the right to breastfeed is something worth fighting for.
Awards:
1. 2008 Outstanding Filipino Physician, Doctor of Medicine
2. One of the 50 Outstanding Alumni of UERMMMC’s in 50 years
3. Outstanding Alumni of the UERMMMC Alumni Association
4. National and International Ruby Award of Soroptimist International (Philippines and North America)
5. I Love Nature Award, Parentin TV Awards, June 2010
6. Gold Medal, World Alliance for Breastfeeding Action, Beijing, China, August 2008
7. Guinness World Record Simultaneous Breastfeeding in a Single Site, May 2006
8. Guinness World Record Simultaneous Breastfeeding in Multiple Sites, May 2007
9. Guinness World Record Simultaneous Tree-planting, October 2007
In 2008, Elvira was honored as one of the Ten Outstanding Physicians of the Philippines. Also in 2008, she won the World Alliance for Breastfeeding Action (WABA) Gold Medal for launching the “Breastfeeding Olympics” in Beijing, China.
She was appointed as special envoy, ambassador of goodwill for Infant and Young Child Feeding by the President of the Philippines. As envoy, she presented the Kennedy family with a presidential award honoring the late US Senator Ted Kennedy for his role in initiating the passage of an international code on the marketing of breast milk substitutes.
Elvira has also established the Grand Coalition Against Corporate Greed to counter the financial might of milk and tobacco companies, and inspired the Philippines’ largest mall chain, SM Supermalls, to put up breastfeeding stations in all of its 34 malls nationwide.
During the recent 2010 Awarding Ceremonies of Soroptomist International, women who have worked at their best to improve the lives of other women were honored. The 95,000-member organization from 120 countries awarded Dr. Elvira Henares-Esguerra for her advocacy work.
“The birth of the breastfeeding movement, like the birth of a nation, like the birth of a baby, is a mixture of pain and joy. In such a birth, the pain rises sharply until it is almost unbearable, then it slowly fades away. The miracle of birth is such that when the pain passes, only the joy remains,” Dr. Esguerra said.
Through the work of Dr. Elvira Henares-Esguerra and other advocates like her, the Philippines got the highest rating from the International Baby Food Network (IBFAN) having “implemented most of the Code and subsequent World Health Assembly resolutions by means of a comprehensive law, decree or other legally enforceable measure.” Developed countries Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore and Taiwan come in low, having only instituted a few voluntary provisions, and the US is – in the words of IBFAN founder Annelies Allain – “at the bottom of the pile.” Its position in the lowest category 9 indicates that the country has taken no action to implement laws that would protect breastfeeding or restrict the marketing practices of the formula-milk companies.
Esguerra’s passion for breastfeeding has perhaps been exemplified best when she didn’t hesitate to nurse her child in front of an audience of 700 as she shared the stage with Philippines’ President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in 2005, as reported in Time. “You should have seen the [officers],” says Henares-Esguerra, recalling the moment her four-year-old son ran to the stage during the President’s speech to inaugurate World Breastfeeding Week in the Philippines. “They all wanted to rush and catch him. But they were too slow.”
Asked how breastfeeding advocates in other nations can follow her country’s example, Henares-Esguerra has this advice: “Promotion, protection, and support. You have to do all three together – you can’t do one without the other.”
The Philippines and mothers everywhere have Esguerra and advocates like her to be grateful for – people who believe the right to breastfeed is something worth fighting for.
Awards:
1. 2008 Outstanding Filipino Physician, Doctor of Medicine
2. One of the 50 Outstanding Alumni of UERMMMC’s in 50 years
3. Outstanding Alumni of the UERMMMC Alumni Association
4. National and International Ruby Award of Soroptimist International (Philippines and North America)
5. I Love Nature Award, Parentin TV Awards, June 2010
6. Gold Medal, World Alliance for Breastfeeding Action, Beijing, China, August 2008
7. Guinness World Record Simultaneous Breastfeeding in a Single Site, May 2006
8. Guinness World Record Simultaneous Breastfeeding in Multiple Sites, May 2007
9. Guinness World Record Simultaneous Tree-planting, October 2007
