SPiN Turns 3 and celebrates International Babywearing Week 2016

South PiNanays (SPiN) is a breastfeeding and mommy support group for mothers in Parañaque, Muntinlupa, Las Piñas, Cavite, Laguna, Batangas and Quezon. Their main advocacy is to help provide proper information, guidance and support to mothers as they go through their breastfeeding journey and motherhood in general. They also provide breastfeeding support and counseling to groups and individuals through public seminars, home/hospital visits, phone, SMS, social media and email. They are quite well-

known and well-loved for their small and big meet-ups. Aside from breastfeeding, they give support and helpful information on topics such as babywearing, cloth diapering and complementary feeding. SPiN was established in October 2013 and is recognized as the official Breastfeeding Support Group of Asian Hospital & Medical Center, Ospital ng Paranaque and Olivarez General Hospital and is an accredited NGO of the City of Tagaytay. The group currently has about 3,500 members and still growing; it was registered as a Non-Government Organization (NGO) back in July 2015.

Below are two SPiN's On-the-Spot Videos that serve as teasers for the event. Camille Manalo anchored these videos by interviewing different SPiN moms. These were shot by Keen Eyes Productions.

SPiN On-The-Spot - Part 1

SPiN On-She-Spot Part 2

This year, SPiN marks their 3rd anniversary and also celebrated the International Babywearing Week 2016 on October 8, 2016 in partnership with Alabang Town Center. This was staged at the Activity Center from 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM. The program was power packed with all the goodies, parents, kids and even passers-by can enjoy. Nina Atienza, one of SPiNs admins, officially opened the program which was followed by a helpful talk by Bing Sugue-Guevarra from Breastfeeding Pinays (another widely popular support group for mothers) about de-bunking Breastfeeding myths. Gaille Reyes from FWD Insurance gave an insightful talk about Ready to Parent. My good friend, Camille Respall-Manalo, owner of both Babywearing Testers PH and Wear Your Baby PH, talked about Safe and Responsible Babywearing, while wearing one of her babies! Talk about, walking the talk!

Other guest speakers like Rosemarie Villanueva from SunLife Financial Philippines gave a quick financial talk, Issa San Jose from Bright Discovery Toddler Learning Center provided an encouraging talk about the benefits of Reading Aloud. Nina Pepper from OuvreTrends, gave fun and cool tips on make-up. Check out Nina's SPiN event Vlog here.

There were peer counseling for Breastfeeding and a demo huddle group for different Babywearing carriers.

The program had all the talks for parents and it highlighted the babywearing advocacy this year. To celebrate this advocacy, there was the first ever advocacy fashion show featuring real SPiN moms, dads and babies wearing local Mom-preneur brands and carrying their babies/toddlers in local and international babywearing carriers. You can get more details of the SPiN Fashion show here.

Katrina Ambion, SPiNs Project chairman this year and SPiN admin, closed the program with a sincere and touching speech thanking everyone who helped make the event a great success and for having the biggest participants turn up this year so far.

SPiN Mommas, who were team bahay or just stayed home, also had a piece of the action with online games and raffle draws through social media. There was also a SPiN Advocacy Photoshoot exclusive for SPiN moms to capture their best breastfeeding and babywearing moments as keepsakes.

The venue was lined up with different vendors showcasing mostly Mom-preneurs and event sponsors. There were small games and raffle draws per program segment for the registered participants so imagine the many prizes up for giveaways. There were a lot of PRIZES! Take note that these prizes were from different advocacy (babywearing, breastfeeding, etc.) and corporate sponsors (click: sponsors for more details). Check out the star-studded list of sponsors for this years event here.

Kat's touching closing remarks

With my Babywearing Testers PH Co-admins: Camille and Yna

With Babywearing Testers PH Co-admins:

L-R: Trinity, Apple, Katrina, Camille, Mica + some SPiN mommas!

With SPiN Models backstage

SPiN Moms gave Ouvretrends Mommy Vlogger Nina and her baby Sky a warm Southie welcome and she is super down-to-earth!

As a SPiN member, I feel truly proud to belong to a very supportive Mommy group who helped shape me in my Mommy-journey. The event was a grand meet up for all Mommas, like me, who enjoyed her time and got to meet old and new SPiN moms. Everyone had a blast: young, old, parent and companions! No one left empty-handed because there were ganes, mini prizes and entertainmemt. There were refreshments, snacks and SPiN lootbags.