I was a full time working mother and have been nursing my 2 beautiful children (3 and a 5 years old).
I have previously struggled in breastfeeding when I had my 1st child. I didn’t know much about breastfeeding then. Like many mothers, I wish to give the best to my child. Coming from a health conscious family, able to breastfeed was one of the thing which I wanted to achieve.
At first, I was having a hard time getting help and support in breastfeeding. I felt I was alone and feeling hopeless. Everyone was too busy with their daily life. However, the obstacles I faced did not stop me, instead, it motivated me to try even harder. During my journey in breastfeeding, I have learnt a lot, though trial and errors and through lots of research and reading.
During my second pregnancy, I did lots of research and studies. Using the knowledge that I've gained, I continued breastfeeding my 1st child throughout my pregnancy and was blessed with abundance of breast milk. I was not only able to nurse both my children, I was also supplying my excess milk to a pair of twins and to my niece. There were at least 350 packets (5 to 6 ounces each) of breast milk given away! There were suppose to be my backups but I never got a chance to use any of them. It was kind of scary looking back at the amount of milk I was producing. The supply came in solely because there was demand! Picture below was taken from my frozen milk storage notebook.
I have previously struggled in breastfeeding when I had my 1st child. I didn’t know much about breastfeeding then. Like many mothers, I wish to give the best to my child. Coming from a health conscious family, able to breastfeed was one of the thing which I wanted to achieve.
At first, I was having a hard time getting help and support in breastfeeding. I felt I was alone and feeling hopeless. Everyone was too busy with their daily life. However, the obstacles I faced did not stop me, instead, it motivated me to try even harder. During my journey in breastfeeding, I have learnt a lot, though trial and errors and through lots of research and reading.
During my second pregnancy, I did lots of research and studies. Using the knowledge that I've gained, I continued breastfeeding my 1st child throughout my pregnancy and was blessed with abundance of breast milk. I was not only able to nurse both my children, I was also supplying my excess milk to a pair of twins and to my niece. There were at least 350 packets (5 to 6 ounces each) of breast milk given away! There were suppose to be my backups but I never got a chance to use any of them. It was kind of scary looking back at the amount of milk I was producing. The supply came in solely because there was demand! Picture below was taken from my frozen milk storage notebook.
Now that I have achieved my goal and have experienced so many great benefits of breastfeeding, I hope to share everything I’ve learnt, practically and theoretically. Much time and effort have been invested to put together this blog. I hope you will find it helpful in some ways.
Breastfeeding does not mean you have to either do it fully or non at all. Breastfeed some if not all. Knowing you have done your best is all that matters. Enjoy your motherhood :)
Last but not least, I wish to thank my family, my brother in-law, Reverend Kumara for recommending me to Hypnobirthing (when I was pregnant with my 2nd child), to my parents in-law, Miss Heang in teaching me about health and detox and online support groups for their invaluable supports. Especially to my loving husband and my mother in-law, I am ever grateful to you.
My story Part one....It was 2006, after working in Singapore for about a year, I was pregnant with my first child. I didn't have many friends there then. However, I was glad to know a working mother at my work place who breastfeed her children. I wasn't close to her as she is often very busy and hard to get hold of. She would express her milk everyday at work. From there, I've learnt the importance of breastfeeding and that it is possible to fully breastfeed even when you are working full time. It was my first time seeing breast milk. It was an amazing feeling. I've never seen or taste human milk in my life. From that moment onwards, I've decided to fully breastfeed my child.
Like many new mothers, breastfeeding is very new to me. I know nothing about it. I thought it would come naturally. Somewhere along my pregnancy, one of my friend, Jason recommended I join a very active forum, to learn more about motherhood: http://www.singaporemotherhood.com/. Till today, I am still active in the forum. I am grateful to be able to share my ups and downs, tears and joy with the mummies there. The forum was considered my only source of knowledge as I didn't have any friends who breastfeed.
After my delivery, I started to learn how to hold and breastfeed my baby. But, there were a lot of things I didn't know. I didn't know I have to work hard to increase supply, I didn't know I have to breastfeed as often as I can so that I can stimulate more milk, especially the first few days. I also didn't know that I have to wake a sleeping newborn so that I can breastfeed 2-3 hours apart. I thought I was suppose to rest! All I know is I want to fully breastfeed and I requested the nurses in the hospital not to feed formula to my baby but to bring her to me if she needs me.
The problem started on the 4th day. I still remember clearly the morning where I cried with my baby in my room because I could no longer satisfy my baby's hunger and she was crying non stop and physically I was in pain due to the forceps and episiotomy during my delivery. Because of my wrong latching method, breastfeeding was so painful that it felt like a knife cutting me. I had no choice but to top up with formula for the first month. I felt like a total failure. What went wrong?
To be continued.......
Breastfeeding does not mean you have to either do it fully or non at all. Breastfeed some if not all. Knowing you have done your best is all that matters. Enjoy your motherhood :)
Last but not least, I wish to thank my family, my brother in-law, Reverend Kumara for recommending me to Hypnobirthing (when I was pregnant with my 2nd child), to my parents in-law, Miss Heang in teaching me about health and detox and online support groups for their invaluable supports. Especially to my loving husband and my mother in-law, I am ever grateful to you.
My story Part one....It was 2006, after working in Singapore for about a year, I was pregnant with my first child. I didn't have many friends there then. However, I was glad to know a working mother at my work place who breastfeed her children. I wasn't close to her as she is often very busy and hard to get hold of. She would express her milk everyday at work. From there, I've learnt the importance of breastfeeding and that it is possible to fully breastfeed even when you are working full time. It was my first time seeing breast milk. It was an amazing feeling. I've never seen or taste human milk in my life. From that moment onwards, I've decided to fully breastfeed my child.
Like many new mothers, breastfeeding is very new to me. I know nothing about it. I thought it would come naturally. Somewhere along my pregnancy, one of my friend, Jason recommended I join a very active forum, to learn more about motherhood: http://www.singaporemotherhood.com/. Till today, I am still active in the forum. I am grateful to be able to share my ups and downs, tears and joy with the mummies there. The forum was considered my only source of knowledge as I didn't have any friends who breastfeed.
After my delivery, I started to learn how to hold and breastfeed my baby. But, there were a lot of things I didn't know. I didn't know I have to work hard to increase supply, I didn't know I have to breastfeed as often as I can so that I can stimulate more milk, especially the first few days. I also didn't know that I have to wake a sleeping newborn so that I can breastfeed 2-3 hours apart. I thought I was suppose to rest! All I know is I want to fully breastfeed and I requested the nurses in the hospital not to feed formula to my baby but to bring her to me if she needs me.
The problem started on the 4th day. I still remember clearly the morning where I cried with my baby in my room because I could no longer satisfy my baby's hunger and she was crying non stop and physically I was in pain due to the forceps and episiotomy during my delivery. Because of my wrong latching method, breastfeeding was so painful that it felt like a knife cutting me. I had no choice but to top up with formula for the first month. I felt like a total failure. What went wrong?
To be continued.......
