My Breastfeeding Journey

Initially, I never had any plan to breastfeed my baby as I am someone who is more career-minded. In fact, most of the people around me are also mis-informed about breastfeeding and I did not even bother or interested to study any further information about it. When I was about to give birth, in my mind I was thinking "ok, why not try for 2 weeks for experience sake then let him go on formula". However, everything changed when I saw my baby for the first time after giving birth to him. He looked so small and fragile. From there on, I decided to breastfeed my baby for as long as possible as I know (even with my limited knowledge about breastfeeding) it is the best thing for my precious baby.

For the first 3 days at the hospital, I manage to breastfeed my baby but had bad case of sore nipple due to improper latching. I told myself not to give up and ignored the pain. After discharged, I went to confinement centre. Once there, the nanny there asked me to choose formula milk to feed my baby but i insisted that i want to fully breastfeed and did not give them any brand name of the formula milk. Things went well but later that evening, my baby keeps on crying and no matter how long i feed him, it is just not enough. The confinement lady kept on saying "breastmilk is not enough", "in hospital they secretly feed with formula", "all mothers also supplement with formula initially", blah blah blah till I was convinced that I had no choice but to supplement with formula.

A day later, my baby was admitted to hospital due to jaundice. It was then I was introduced to Spetra 3 breastpump, a unit provided by the confinement centre for mothers to express their breastmilk. When I first use it, it was only a mere 1oz, but as days passed i notice an increase of milk quantity and i knew then that the this pump is really suitable for me and is able to help in stimulating for more breastmilk production. Slowly my baby takes less formula milk supplement as I'm feeding my baby directly during the day (though he gets hungry every 1/2 hour), while express using the pump at night for the nanny to feed from bottle. By the third week, i am able to get 3oz and it was then I was introduced to Melissa from BabyParadise in order to buy the breastpump. While meeting her, she gave me valuable advice as to how to increase my breastmilk and how to breastfeed successfully. Her stories inspired me alot and I tried her advice at home after leaving the confinement centre. Furthermore, I took the chance to study more information about breastfeeding and milk storage from internet during my second month of maternity at home to better equip my knowledge. When I'm back to work, I still supplement my baby with formula for about 2 weeks and then onwards, it is breastmilk exclusively till now.

So far I've managed to balance my worklife and motherhood successfully. There are people around me who have mis-conception about breastfeeding and I gladly took the chance to explain to them with whatever knowledge that I have. It really take times for some people to understand but it is worth the effort as you will end up having more people supporting breastfeeding.