My journey in nurturing mothers and children
Nona D. Andaya-Castillo, IBCLC (Nanay Nona) is the first and currently the only non-doctor in the Philippines who passed the accreditation for International Board Certified Lactation Consultants or IBCLC. It is a recognized profession in all European hospitals and in countries like the USA, Canada and Australia. She is also a free-lance teacher of indigenous vegetarianism, natural healing using food as medicine, prepared childbirth, breastfeeding and natural parenting and family planning.
As a communications specialist, she led Nurturers of the Earth and Children for Breastfeeding to initiate a national campaign to promote, protect and support breastfeeding with projects like the annual celebration of World Breastfeeding Week and the establisment of Breastfeeding Stations in all SM Supermalls. The campaign generated national and international impact that gave herself and her team members many awards including two Guinness Records on Simultaneous Breastfeeding in Single and Multiple Sites. Synchronized Breastfeeding Worldwide is now organized annually in 19 other countries since 2007.
Her personal story in her own words:
My mother named me after St. Raymond Nonnatus, the patron saint of pregnant mothers. Little did she know that supporting pregnant and breastfeeding mothers would become my passion in life.
I started with dreams of becoming a broadcast journalist and took up Mass Communication at the University of the Philippines Diliman in 1979. In UP, I realized that the media under the Marcos regime was heavily censored and I lost interest in working for it. Like many other UP students who heeded the call of the times, I opted to go the countryside to “serve the people.” I worked with the Rural Missionaries of the Philippines as a lay assistant in Isabela until I married in 1987 and gave birth to a baby girl in 1988.
Reared in a home whose fondness for dairy products was almost insatiable, my family also ate a lot of processed foods. My father worked in a famous ice cream company so we had lots of milk and ice cream in the freezer. When he worked abroad for several years, my father flooded us with pasalubongs of chocolates and canned foods. My father complained though that his homecomings should include an itinerary to the hospitals or doctors’ consultations because I was almost always sick. We did not know then that the food we ate caused the illnesses. Due to severe backache since childhood, there were times that I felt like a beauty pageant contestant. Only, I had to pose front view, back view and side view before an x-ray machine. I used to take a lot of antibiotics and endured hospitalizations. But still the illnesses kept on recurring.
I became interested in studying about health in preparation for motherhood by reading a lot of books and underwent trainings on birthing, breastfeeding, natural fertility management and natural healing. After a beautiful non-medicated birthing experience, I exclusively breastfed my child and gave her only natural foods.
In 1991, during the growing-up years of my daughter, my family lived in Baguio. That was where my daughter and I became vegetarians. My husband got into the lifestyle five years later when he contracted rheumatic heart disease. I had several projects with Plan International Baguio, one of which was to help farmers grow vegetables organically so I had no problem sourcing chemical-free vegetables.
When I went back to work, I served in human rights and disaster response NGOs as an information officer then decided to volunteer my services with ARUGAAN from 1996-2003. During this period, I specialized on infant and young child feeding. I also took trainings on natural family planning, natural birthing and massage therapy. My work involved promoting, protecting and supporting breastfeeding and encouraging parents to use indigenous healing foods. I also worked with Dr. Susana Balingit that deepened my knowledge on other indigenous nurturing practices.
Later on I participated as a trainer and speaker in conferences both here and abroad. In 2004, I passed the exam for International Board Certified Lactation Consultants and became the first and only non-doctor board-passer in the Philippines.
It is so fulfilling to be a trailblazer in establishing careers that will nurture families and the earth. As a breastfeeding consultant, the best reward of the job is when I see a baby suckling his mother’s breast with intense satisfaction and that reminds me of how Mother Nature nurtures us.
Awards:
I Love Nature Award for Natural Parenting,ParentinTV Awards, June 2010
Happiest Pinoy Cebuana Lhuillier Insurance Solutions, February 2010
Top 7 Finalist
Asian Fellow World Alliance for Breastfeeding Action
Penang. Malaysia, November-December 2007
Gold Medal World Alliance for Breastfeeding Action
Beijing, China, August 2008
Guinness World Record Simultaneous Breastfeeding in a Single Site, May 2006
Guinness World Record Simultaneous Breastfeeding in Multiple Sites, May 2007
Guinness World Record Simultaneous Tree-planting, October 2007
