Most first time mothers does not realize that breastfeeding is not an easy tusk. In the flyer which is usually distributed in the hospital or the nurses who guide the mothers how to breast feed the child, will not tell you much about the facts you will be facing at the initial stages of the breastfeeding. The only things they will advise you is to be determined and perservere with breastfeeding. There are some points that I would like to highlight to first time mothers about the initial stages of breastfeeding from my own experience which they should be mentally prepared:
- First day no milk will come out but may have very little transparent liquid (colostrum) which is very nutrition for the baby
- Baby gets hungry very often and starts crying for milk after an hour.
- Baby may unable to latch on your breast, need to keep on trying or even seek for help from the nurses.
- Every hour or every two hour in the night, wake up to breast feed the baby.
- If the baby drunk one side of the breast only, the other side need to express out to avoid breast engorgement (even in the middle of the night).
- When feeding one side, the other side of the breast may also leak at the same time.
- Milk pump may not fit your size and might unable to pump out the milk faster then you express manually using fingers.
- Once introduce to milk bottle, the baby may not want to drink from your beast as the flow is not as quickly as from bottle.
- Baby may get breastfeeding jaundice if mummy ate too much of ginger
- Baby may get skin allergy if mummy drink too much tonic wine.
- No coffee/tea even you are in bad shape as it will affect the baby during breastfeeding.
- May get depressed easily.
Mummy who faced the above situation like me should not be put off. Once you have overcome all these, the milk flow will start regular; everything will turn up easy for you. And most of the mothers will start enjoy breastfeeding their baby till the baby turn 2 years old (After all the hardship, it is very hard to let go not to breastfeed the baby). Things that will help gain more milk flow:
- Drink more papaya fish herb soup everyday (Ingredients: green papaya; salmon’s head or salmon’s bone the best (normal fish bone or fish head also can); 党参- Fllase AsiabelI Root Tangshen; 红枣Red Date; 北芪Bei Qi)
- Drink 1-2 cup milk a day (or Milo)
- Massage the breasts
- Rest well
- Try to direct feed the baby (8 feeds a day) as it will help to stimulate the milk
- After feed the baby, try pump out some more milk as it will help to produce more milk in the next feed.
- Try to let the baby suck from both breast and not just the left or right breast if your baby gets his fill from 1 breast. Let say this feed use the left breast, then the next feed should use the right breast.
- Pump out the breast milk before engorgement.
- Put lettuce (direct from fridge) on the breast to soften the engorgement (Do not put more then 2 hours as it will dry out your milk).
If you face problem in breastfeeding or feel depress during breastfeeding, there are lots of helpline outside which you can seek for help:
Breastfeeding Mother Support Group (Singapore): 63393558 (Mon-Fri 9am-8pm)
Website: http://www.breastfeeding.org.sg
La Leche League (Singapore): 70005554636
Website: http://www.lllsg.tripod.com
Joyful Parenting and Breastfeeding: 64880286
You may also want to get more information about breastfeeding at:
http://media.parkwayhealth.com/docs/ParkwayHealth_BreastFeeding_Brochure.pdf
http://www.breastfeedingbasics.com/html/info.shtml
http://www.dumex.com.sg/feeding_and_nutrition/breastfeeding/article/common_breastfeeding_problems_and_solutions
Below story is my experience in breastfeeding.
My breastfeeding experience for my first child – Rachel is very bad. Blur, helpless and depress make me stop my breastfeeding before Rachel fully turn 1 month old. Furthermore, with no one to seek advice from and lack of information, I fed Rachel with formula milk as well as breast milk. At the end, I do not have enough milk flow for Rachel demand.
When my second child – Rayner was born, I and my hubby had better understanding about breastfeeding. Also, the nurses were helpful to guide me with lots of information regarding breastfeeding. Breastfeeding class conduct in the hospital before I discharge was very helpful. However, along the breast feeding, it is not simple as ABC. As my hubby and myself wanted very much to feed Rayner only breast milk, the first month was very torturing and tiring. Everyday I had sleepless nights due to Rayner kept waking up every hour for his milk. Beside that, my milk flow is slow at the beginning, Rayner is very hungry and could not wait, as a result, he will keep crying non-stop, which make me feel very lost and helpless. Beside that, Rayner most of the time drunk only side of my breast and then fell asleep, I will need to express out the milk for the other side to avoid breast engorgement. However, the electrical milk pump which I brought is no good for me as my breast is small, the big cup just does not fit well and unable to suck properly, so in the end, I rather manually express out my milk by using my own fingers, and it take me hour to express just 50ml milk at the beginning. As a result, I totally have not enough rest in the day time and sleepless night. To make thing worst, Rayner has jaundice and need to be hospitalize for a day. As his may be due to breastfeeding jaundice, it take more then a month him to recover. Every time we need to bring Rayner to do blood test to check the level of Jaundice, it was very heartbreaking for me to see him crying very loudly and uncontrollable the nurse tried very hard to squeeze his blood out. With all the problems I need to face, I almost breakdown and feel like give up the breastfeeding.
Lucky, my family gave me their support by helping me to carry Rayner away as and when he cried non-stop. My mum who do the confinement for me will boiled all the tonic soup, papaya fish soup everyday for me to gain more breast milk. In day time while Rayner is awake, they will take turn to look after him and let me to catch my sleep after long sleepless night. At the same time, when I visit my gynae for checkup, she learn about my problems and advised me to top up with formula milk for Rayner at night so that the baby and I can have a good rest at night instead of both party get frustrated due to not enough breast milk flow and lost of sleep in the night.
I took the advice and fed Rayner with formula milk before his sleep at night, as the feed is enough for Rayner, he was able to sleep more then two hours in the night. The breastfeeding was become easier for me when Rayner finally can sleep through the night. With all the helps from my family and advice by my gynae, I finally able to pull through three months with fully breastfeeding for Rayner in day time and top up formula milk at night. Only after the fourth months, when I need to go back to work, we started top up with formula milk for Rayner in day time also if my breast milk which I have express out and stored in fridge was not enough. Therefore, Rayner get to enjoy my breast milk until he is six months old even though I am back to work.
Breastfeeding Mother Support Group (Singapore): 63393558 (Mon-Fri 9am-8pm)
Website: http://www.breastfeeding.org.sg
La Leche League (Singapore): 70005554636
Website: http://www.lllsg.tripod.com
Joyful Parenting and Breastfeeding: 64880286
You may also want to get more information about breastfeeding at:
http://media.parkwayhealth.com/docs/ParkwayHealth_BreastFeeding_Brochure.pdf
http://www.breastfeedingbasics.com/html/info.shtml
http://www.dumex.com.sg/feeding_and_nutrition/breastfeeding/article/common_breastfeeding_problems_and_solutions
Below story is my experience in breastfeeding.
My breastfeeding experience for my first child – Rachel is very bad. Blur, helpless and depress make me stop my breastfeeding before Rachel fully turn 1 month old. Furthermore, with no one to seek advice from and lack of information, I fed Rachel with formula milk as well as breast milk. At the end, I do not have enough milk flow for Rachel demand.
When my second child – Rayner was born, I and my hubby had better understanding about breastfeeding. Also, the nurses were helpful to guide me with lots of information regarding breastfeeding. Breastfeeding class conduct in the hospital before I discharge was very helpful. However, along the breast feeding, it is not simple as ABC. As my hubby and myself wanted very much to feed Rayner only breast milk, the first month was very torturing and tiring. Everyday I had sleepless nights due to Rayner kept waking up every hour for his milk. Beside that, my milk flow is slow at the beginning, Rayner is very hungry and could not wait, as a result, he will keep crying non-stop, which make me feel very lost and helpless. Beside that, Rayner most of the time drunk only side of my breast and then fell asleep, I will need to express out the milk for the other side to avoid breast engorgement. However, the electrical milk pump which I brought is no good for me as my breast is small, the big cup just does not fit well and unable to suck properly, so in the end, I rather manually express out my milk by using my own fingers, and it take me hour to express just 50ml milk at the beginning. As a result, I totally have not enough rest in the day time and sleepless night. To make thing worst, Rayner has jaundice and need to be hospitalize for a day. As his may be due to breastfeeding jaundice, it take more then a month him to recover. Every time we need to bring Rayner to do blood test to check the level of Jaundice, it was very heartbreaking for me to see him crying very loudly and uncontrollable the nurse tried very hard to squeeze his blood out. With all the problems I need to face, I almost breakdown and feel like give up the breastfeeding.
Lucky, my family gave me their support by helping me to carry Rayner away as and when he cried non-stop. My mum who do the confinement for me will boiled all the tonic soup, papaya fish soup everyday for me to gain more breast milk. In day time while Rayner is awake, they will take turn to look after him and let me to catch my sleep after long sleepless night. At the same time, when I visit my gynae for checkup, she learn about my problems and advised me to top up with formula milk for Rayner at night so that the baby and I can have a good rest at night instead of both party get frustrated due to not enough breast milk flow and lost of sleep in the night.
I took the advice and fed Rayner with formula milk before his sleep at night, as the feed is enough for Rayner, he was able to sleep more then two hours in the night. The breastfeeding was become easier for me when Rayner finally can sleep through the night. With all the helps from my family and advice by my gynae, I finally able to pull through three months with fully breastfeeding for Rayner in day time and top up formula milk at night. Only after the fourth months, when I need to go back to work, we started top up with formula milk for Rayner in day time also if my breast milk which I have express out and stored in fridge was not enough. Therefore, Rayner get to enjoy my breast milk until he is six months old even though I am back to work.
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