Advocates of breast-feeding in the Philippines will try anew to break their own record set last year, by organizing the biggest simultaneous breast-feeding event on Wednesday.

The Children for Breast-feeding, with its partner, Nurturers of the Earth, has invited mothers to participate in a simultaneous breast-feeding program in at least 40,000 day-care centers all over the Philippines.

This is the second year the group are holding the event. Last year, the group made it to the Guinness Book of World Records after it managed to gather at least 3,541 mothers who simultaneously breast-fed their children in Manila.

Organizer Nona Castillo, director of Nurturers of the Earth said the event is not just about the world record. The group hopes to promote breast-feeding for children amid the proliferation of infant formula in the country.

She said, "We want it to be a national prayer to protect our children from corporate greed."

The event is the group's answer to the aggressive media campaign of multinational companies manufacturing and promoting breast milk substitutes.

In an ad published in dailies some weeks back, an association of milk companies listed the benefits of breast-feeding, but also said that "when a mother chooses not to, cannot continue, or stops breast-feeding, infant formulas prepared according to globally accepted standards and guidelines are deemed suitable and safe."

Castillo was quick to disagree, citing a study of the World Health Organization. In 2003, WHO estimated that 16,000 children under the age of 5 died in the Philippines as a result of improper feeding practices, including infant formula.

"Our event is a prayer for those children who died as well as for those suffering because of [breast-milk substitutes]," she said.

Getting a boost from the Department of Social Welfare and Development and the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority, the organizers hope the event will not only educate mothers, but children as well.

"We are holding it in day-care centers to show children that breast-feeding is the norm, so that they will think this is the natural way," Castillo said.

They also want to promote breast-feeding for children even beyond the age of 2, not only for health reasons, but also "so that children will remember."

"That will create a stronger bond between a mother and her child," Castillo said.

Holding the current record for the most number of mothers who breast-fed simultaneously in a single site, the organizers hope to set a new record by gathering the most number of mothers in multiple sites.