About more than a year ago (that was when I decided to get
pregnant again), I said to myself to get a breast pump. I have high
determination to breastfeed exclusively my second child. And then I got
pregnant; the first I bought was a Korean made electric breast pump, Spectra 3.
I once read a post on the Internet saying that the decision to breastfeed a
child is not made after the pregnancy has been confirmed. It should have been
made even before a woman got married.
Ameer Zikri - 20042009 |
I only got chance to breastfeed my first son only the first
5 month of his life. It wasn't exclusive either. Days after we brought him home
from the hospital, the midwife asked us to give our son formula milk to
supplement his needs. He was diagnosed with jaundice (it wasn’t severe). My
body produces enough milk from him but I have difficulties to breastfeed him.
He was hungry most of the time and with very little milk he consumed, his body
couldn’t eliminate birubilin from his system. I was really frustrated that I
felt like wanting run away from the house. I felt like a loser. Trying to be
realistic, I had to allow my baby taking formula milk to supplement his need.
After a week, he is free from jaundice and I stopped giving him formula milk.
Another challenge came to me when after a month giving birth
to our son; my husband was called for duty for 6 months which mean we have to
live without him for 6 months. I had to handle everything on by my own without
my beloved husband by my side. I had wake early every morning, cleaning and
feeding baby before sending him to the nursery, fetching him later in the
evening, feeding and cleaning him before going to bed. Quite a few times I
missed my dinner. It was tiring and I didn't care much to stock up my milk
supply.
I had to admit that I had very little knowledge and
inspirations to fully breastfeed my first son. There are two categories of
women in my office, a group of married with big kids’ women and the other group
was single ladies. I have no support and very lack of awareness on the
importance of breastfeeding or maybe it just me who didn't care enough. As the
time passed, more friends got married, had babies and breastfeed.
Ahmad Zharif - 18092011 |
For my second son, I managed to breastfeed him exclusively
for the pass 6 month of his life. He started taking solid food when turns 6
month. Despite solid food has been part of his diet, he still drinks mother’s
milk and surprisingly the demand rose ever since. Coincidentally, my milk production
starts deteriorating. This frustrates me.
Frozen Expressed Breastmilk - few months ago |
Before this, my body produces abundant of milk. In 10
minutes, I could express at least 10 ounce of milk with bare hand using Marmet
technique. Nowadays, even 4 ounces in 10 minutes is hard. Therefore, I had to
buy a second breast pump gadget. I bought Unimum Mezzo manual breast pump. So
far, it helps me moderately.
Marmet technique manual expressed milk |
Keep up the good milk. Breastfeeding is never easy and I think you are doing a great job.
BalasPadamMother's milk is the god's sent gift for our beautiful babies..
Padam