CHARMIE DUNGCA ARRIBE, MD
LEADERSHIP
REFLECTION PAPER 3
"WHAT IS YOUR PASSION?"
Passion will move men beyond themselves, beyond their shortcomings, beyond their failures. – Joseph Campbell, American Mythologist, Writer, and Lecturer
MY PASSION ON TEACHING AND ADVOCACY ON BREASTFEEDING
A mentor once told me that, "You are what you do." When I was younger I was always assigned the task to 'explain' things or give further analysis to clarify an issue, then I knew I loved to 'coach' or 'teach' and I believe this is one of my passions. I am a doctor and I can touch and save lives in my line of work but when I teach I know that my ideals will transcend more than my lifetime. I am currently a part-time faculty at the College of Allied Medical Professions at Angeles University and I teach the subjects Growth & Development and General Physiology to BS Physical Therapy and BS Occupational Therapy students. I am also a guest lecturer in Pharmacology at the Angeles University School of Medicine where I handle second and third year medical students. When I started teaching my husband didn't agree with me and he said that if I spent time in the clinic I will earn more than the time I spent in teaching. True! My salary as a faculty is very meager and I have to spend at least 4 hours in class to teach. It didn't really stop me in getting the job because in class I am not doing clinical analysis to patients, I am actually empowering students to acquire knowledge needed for their future. It is a place where I can inspire young adults. It is a venue where I can help undo their bad habits if any. It is in the classroom where I can hone some more 'good citizens.' It is a place where I can influence my students to focus on their goals and help them get there. Teaching gives me a sense of purpose. Teaching relaxes me from the stresses of my medical career. Teaching helps me make a difference in the lives of my students. And it gives me a sense of accomplishment when I see my students succeed in their chosen field. Their success is my success and I share in their failures as well. I help them face their most difficult times and I think this is one reason why I love being a teacher. It gave me another perspective when I became an MBA student. I am excited to teach what I have learned in my training. I am creating small ripples of change in my students' lives and with all the good teachers they will meet along the way I am sure the wave of change will happen within them.
Another thing that I am passionate about is breastfeeding. Motherhood opened my eyes on issues and challenges of breastfeeding. When I gave birth to my firstborn I knew I wanted to breastfeed because of all the wonderful things it can give my child but I didn't know it was going to be challenging to do it. I grew up in a 'none-breastfeeding' family so the only support I had was from my husband and when my son was already a week old, I still had no milk and I am beginning to be disheartened as I was cup feeding my son and am getting weary because no one else can do cup feeds but me. My lack of sleep and lack of milk almost made me want to give up the idea of breastfeeding my child. I remained strong and practiced latching and positioning and feeding until on the 5th week of my son's life my milk came! I was so happy that finally I started 'exclusively' feeding my son with my own milk. Then realizations came to me, if I struggled this much to stay in the game what more can non-doctor-moms do? I started learning about breastfeeding, its benefits, the positioning of the mom and the baby and all other details, then I started coaching the moms that I had the chance to catch their babies. I saw how happy the mom-and-baby dyad became with successful breastfeeding and I knew I had a mission to spread the culture in our community at least. I had a patient who was born prematurely and all we wanted to feed her was breastmilk to ensure lesser complications so I asked my breastfeeding moms if they can donate to my premature patient and by God's grace most of them heeded the call for help. The baby survived her ordeals up until she was able to latch to her own mom to feed and I was grateful to all the mothers who pooled in milk to help her survive. As I have inspired the mom of this surviving child, we met and planned to put up a breastfeeding support group for the moms in Angeles City. The Abe-Abe Breastfeeding Club was born February 19, 2014 with the help of all of my breastfeeding moms. The club is a support group for moms who want to exclusively breastfeed their younglings but find the struggles difficult. We provided counselling, lectures, demonstrations, massages and support to the parents who are willing to take this path. Breastfeeding is healthy for both the mother and the child, it promotes that strong bond between them, it makes the children emotionally stable and more intelligent because of the skin-to-skin exposure, it provides physical, emotional and spiritual nourishment, it is environmentally friendly because it helps avoid use of bottles, cleaners, sterilizers and formula milk and best of all it is FREE! To empower myself to becoming an advocate for lactation, I went to train as DOH trainer for The Unang Yakap (a government supported program for breastfeeding and newborn care), I attended Lactation Management Training in Fabella Hospital, I participated in international lactation conferences, I am a member of the Breastfriends (group of paediatricians in the Philippines trying to further breastfeeding and its policies in the country, with ethical and moral guidelines), I am a speaker for seminars and trainings on lactation. This August 2015, we will be holding the First International Breastfeeding Conference in the Philippines and I am honoured to be tasked as one of the trainers in one workshop of this event. This advocacy was mentored to me by Dra. Mianne Silvestre and Dra. Lei Alfonso whom I wil be forever grateful. My advocacy does not come in a silver platter served hot and good, it has all the judgements and challenges as other good things have. I had bashers in social media and at first I would fight back but when I started discerning about the hardships I began to be benevolent to those who do not believe in what I do. My dream is to spread the breastfeeding culture in Angeles City and since this advocacy started my patients have gotten to know my passion and they started referring me to parents who want to breastfeed. Of course I have my share of detractors but my dad said, "Ang puno na may bunga lang ang pinupukol." I have a long way to go as far as my breastfeeding advocacy is concerned but I know as I encounter allies along the way my dream of spreading the breastfeeding culture will come true. 3.5
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