I am all for breastfeeding. If that is how mothers choose to feed, excellent.
I understand the impetus behind the event to promote the health benefits of breastfeeding, which are often cited as acting as a type of immunisation and a way for mother and baby to bond. The fact it is free is also often cited - unless you count the added cost of push up bras or breast surgery years down the track after having several of your offspring hang off your nipples.
But I find overtly public displays of breastfeeding exhibitionist.
It is one thing if a mum is out and about and baby is hungry, then of course it is natural to find a spot to feed him, whether it be in a cafe, or mall, or shop.
This is the norm, acceptable and so it should be.
There was rightly an outcry in the UK this month when a breastfeeding woman claimed that a shop security guard tore her baby from her breast.
It seemed a shocking objection, not for its suggestion of violence, but even just for the fact that anyone would object to a woman breastfeeding in a shop. It seems the woman may have milked the tale, and now faces charges of perverting the course of justice.
So if mums want to feed out and about - fine.
Most people do not bat an eyelid if they see a mother breastfeeding in public.
But a mass latch-on seems an aggressive stance. Like a political demonstration.
What is the point? To prove that breastfeeding is natural? So is having sex or going to the toilet but no one wants to see the whole country do that in public at 10am on a Friday morning.
Although the public health message behind the Latch-On may have had good intentions - to raise awareness that "breastfeeding is a beautiful thing", ironically the mass demo may have the opposite effect.
Despite all the efforts of the health services to promote breastfeeding - the goal of the New Zealand Breastfeeding Authority is for it to become a cultural norm - it is not.
As we reported earlier this year, in the Bay of Plenty DHB region, 79 per cent of infants were exclusively or fully breastfed at two weeks, this dropped to 75 per cent at six weeks and 58 per cent by three months, according to 2014 figures from the Ministry of Health.
On the one hand this seems strange, given the fervour of the promotion of breastfeeding within hospitals and maternity units.
But many mothers I know say they find this zealous approach to breastfeeding off-putting. While some mothers may have found great support in hospitals and birthing units, others tell me they hated breastfeeding, and felt tremendous pressure from some who would literally yank their breasts to baby as though plugging a washer to a tap.
There may be many benefits of breastfeeding but, for those who do not want to, or cannot breastfeed, then it would be more inclusive for the health services to say that formula feeding is also okay. In fact it may be more than okay - recent research reported in Time magazine showed in a sibling study there was little statistical difference between siblings that were bottle or breast fed.
The experience of first-time mothers I know has been that they were led to believe they were terrible mothers if they couldn't, or didn't want to, breastfeed, and the lack of support for formula feeding within the health services also flows down to the general public, so these mothers felt judged and criticised. This approach to breastfeeding seems propoganda-like.
At such a vulnerable time in a woman's life, the pressure that only breastfeeding is acceptable can lead to needless stress.
I believe a baby is better with a happy bottle-feeding mother than an unhappy breastfeeding mother. And let's get this into perspective - when your children are older, winning speech competitions or 100m races, going to uni or starting their first job, does anyone question and judge whether they were bottle or breast fed?
If you want to bottle feed, great. If you want to breastfeed, great.
But a mass display to shove it in our faces is unnecessary and just a little bit "ugh".
