Last March 25, 2013, I shared my thoughts and experiences on
breastfeeding to new and expectant moms, lolas, health workers and some office
employees---my fellow Fernandinas as part of the women’s month celebration.
Posting what I shared and some of the actual slides I used.
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When I was invited to be here, I
was actually thrilled to share my experience as a breastfeeding and working
mom. Breastfeeding has actually redefined how I see motherhood thus, I decided
to share with you what breastfeeding means to me and in turn, I hope to give
some information that might help new and expectant mothers.
Breastfeeding is a natural choice
You probably won’t believe that even before I have met my husband I have l already decided to breastfeed. Why? Simply because my grandmother breastfeed 7 of her 9 children and my mother provided the same precious milk gold to my brother and I for a year.
So when I got pregnant, I
actually started preparing to breastfeed. A breastpump is part of my list of
things to buy and I scratch any item that seems to relate to formula feeding.
On my sixth month as a pregnant mom, part of my diet is boiled malunggay juice with calamansi and honey.
I have also informed my OB on my
intent to practice exclusive breastfeeding and luckily she was an advocate. She
made sure that my son and I were able to enjoy “unang yakap”. Here is my son
enjoying his first meal during his first minutes of life in the outside world. This
moment is so precious and I hope that every mother will get to experience it.
My son and I were home after a
day and a half in hospital. Once home, that is when I learned that...
Breastfeeding is a challenge
I thought that like my mom and
lola, milk will freely flow. That is was easy to feed. But my son had
difficulty adjusting to his new environment and prefers to be linked to me thru
my breast every hour on the hour. He was always crying and seems to be always
hungry.
I was having a bad case of post
partum depression. My worst fear is not having milk and I have been asking
myself why is that I don’t have milk? We went to the extent of asking for milk
from new moms who are also breastfeeding.
While my son is at my breast, my
husband would placed the donated milk to my areola so my son would think it
comes from me and he would keep on sucking.
I started reading researching
over the internet on how to increase my milk supply and to have my milk come. I
did everything –from not drinking any cold drink, having Malunggay in all my
meals, self massages while taking a bath and pumping my other breast while my
son was feeding on the other side. I would like to share some tips that helped
me increase and maintain my milk supply:
·
Breastmilk increases as the demand increases
·
While baby is latched, pump the other side
·
Do not drink anything cold –drink hot/lukewarm
water before nursing or pumping milk
·
Eat a healthy diet and include food that helps
your body create milk –like Malunggay, oatmeal, etc.
·
Keep baby at the breast at every opportunity. When I am home or with my son, he gets milk direct from me
·
Be confident! Breastfeed anytime, anywhere!
Later on I learned that my son
was just simply having a hard time adjusting to his new world and that he
craves to be cuddled and cradled because during the 1st few weeks of
life, they don’t need much milk. Looking at the chart on the screen, it shows
how little milk a newborn needs vs what the formula prescription of a
paediatrician of 2oz every 4 hours.
Breastfeeding means more sleep for mommy and daddy
We don’t have to wake up in the
middle of the night to fetch milk, wait for him to finish and then burp. All I
have to do is make my breast accessible and nurse the baby by my side. Yes,
co-sleeping is safe and convenient.
Breastfeeding means having a healthy baby
In our country, sadly most babies
are formula fed especially those who actually can’t afford to buy milk. They
were led to believe that a healthy baby is one who is fat. But actually, no
matter how cute a fat baby is they are not actually healthy. I have learned
that there are two (2) types of malnutrition –the common one that we know which
is under nutrition at which a child is so thin and the other when is
overnutrition at which the child is overweight.
When you breastfeed, especially
if you do it exclusively for the first six (6) months of the life of your child
you are assured that the weight of your baby is managed properly. My son was
never under or overweight. To common Filipino, he may appear thin but he is
actually well within the required weight for his age. But most of the time, his skills development is ahead of the normal--he was crawling on his 6th month, walking at 10 months and running before he turned a year old.
Breastfeeding makes you sexy
I know I can no longer buy a free
size dress on sale but breastfeeding helped me attain a fairly good weight with
practically no exercise. I was able to be back in my pre-pregnancy shape in a
month—including a near flat tummy.
Breastfeeding will make you fashionable
I have to admit that as any girl
I always like to look fab. I would not want a diaper bag ruin my outfit. I
can’t afford those high-end diaper bags but with breastfeeding, I actually
don’t need a diaper bag because I don’t need to carry a heavy bottle of water
and formula. Just a few clothes for my little one, baby wipes and diapers will
do.
Breastfeeding is economical
Did you know that you spend about
Php 5k to Php 10k a month for formula feeding depending on the brand of milk
and water?
Imagine, just for six months, you
can save minimum of 30k.
You might tell me know that a
good double electric pump in the market costs around Php 20k. You will ask: How
can you breastfeed and work if I don’t have enough funds to purchase a pump?
Actually, you don’t need to buy a
pump if you can’t afford it. You just need to practice hand pumping. I have a
friend who was able to express milk for three years just hand pumping. Only a
few are experts on how to hand pump but there is actually a video in Youtube
that can teach you how to do it and a few articles to help you learn more about
it. Hand pumping is a practical skill for nursing moms. That is why one of my
dreams is that teaching a new mom how to hand pump be made a standard procedure
in all hospitals.
Breastfeeding makes a working mom innovative
I have said earlier, nurse
anytime, anywhere. Now I am revising it to: when at work, pump anytime,
anywhere! (except inside the CR). In over two (2) years as a working and
pumping mom, I expressed milk in all clinics of all the hotels in Makati
Central Business District, all nursing station of practically all malls in
metro manila, dressing room of department store, inside cars, pantry, offices
–you will be surprised on how accommodating people can be just to provide you
with the privacy that you need, and of course in my own office cubicle.
Breastfeeding relaxes a very stressed mom
I would say that my job demands a
lot of time and I just squeeze in pumping every single moment that I can. I
actually treat it as a welcome break time and be away from stress and demands
of my job from time to time.
Breastfeeding is my way of being with child when I need to be away
for work
Finally, as a working mom, I had
to leave my son and go back to work after 2 months of maternity leave. It was
actually painful to do especially he was my first born. But breastfeeding helped
me overcome the pain of being away from him at least 8 hours a day.
Breastfeeding is my way of being with child when I need to be away for work.
For every once, of milk that I get, I give him tons of love.
As a woman, I have been blessed
to have various roles—a boss, a manager, a mentor, a friend, a daughter, a
sister, a wife, a mother but to best role that I have been blessed with is to
be the provider of unmatched nutrition for my son, Azlan Lione and I intend to
be again for all of my future children.
I hope that I was able to impart a little information that you can use when you have your child or when you attend to your patients. For the younger ladies here, I hope that you will also decide to breastfeed even if you have not met your "the one."
