Now, our new addition, Hannah, is about 3 weeks old. Gone all the labour pain, the pelvic pain & discomfort.. welcome endless nights, nappy changes and breast engorgement!
Nevertheless, all the pain gone through was well worth it when I look at my dear (long awaited) daughter's eyes. She's a very calm girl, compared to her elder brothers who were quite a handful at managing when they were tiny (even now!). She only screams when she is wet- oh ya.. she has been on cloth diapers since we came back from hospital at day 2- otherwise, she's always sleeping so peacefully. Now I know why Mom didn't mind having 4 daughters and a son (were we really that good Mom? Awh.. bless us!).
Right.. back to our topic- BREAST FEEDING. Maybe many would be thinking- why is she blogging about breast feeding? She must want to show off her skills, since it's her 4th child and she must be really good at it. Well, the hell NO. I might have 4 children, but the truth is.. I've never succeeded at breast feeding exclusively. So that's why I've decided to write about it.
First, a little bit of background. I'm a Paediatric doctor. I've been to several breast feeding courses in my 8 years of service. I know all the basics and the theory behind breast feeding. I'm a 100% supporter of exclusive breast feeding. I have all the gadgets 'needed' to assist with breast feeding. I join local online breast feeding support groups. Yet I still don't succeed at breast feeding my children!
With my first child, Isyraf, I was determined to exclusively breast feed. So, right from day 1, I eagerly put him to my breasts although I had very little colostrum (I mean VERY VERY little- near dry). I didn't want to supplement him at all. He ended up being very fretful, so I had to put him to my breasts again and again (on demand). I got really stressed up (and that didn't help with milk production at all), my nipples were sore and cracked they even bled due to poor attachment- and I ended up crying along with my boy!
Then, I went for post partum massage, which included the breasts and my milk started flowing. There was suddenly sooo much milk (I'm not sure if it's because of the massage, or because it was day 3 and milk production was supposed to be better anyway!) but my nipples hurt so much that I couldn't come to put my son on my breasts because of the pain. So I had to pump and feed him till the pain was more bearable, but pumping isn't the same as a baby suckling- the milk doesn't come all out- and I ended with breast engorgement. When I'm engorged, it's also painful, so I would put Isyraf back to my breasts to suckle. But when the breasts are sooo engorged, he wouldn't be able to latch properly and I again ended up with sore nipples.. and the cycle goes on...
Moral of the story: Be calm and patient when breast feeding. Make sure baby latches on properly. If you're engorged, do pump out some milk first so your breasts are soft and baby can attach properly. You can feed him with the milk collected later.
I had more or less the same experience with Iman and Izwan later on, but they were not as bad as the ones I had with Isyraf.
Now with Hannah, breast feeding so far has been smooth sailing. I still haven't managed to breast feed exclusively, I'm not proud of it, but I'm content with it. I know that breast feeding doesn't come easy to everybody- I have come to terms with this fact. I believe that breast feeding is the best gift you could ever give your child, so as with any gift, it should be given with a lot of love and happiness.
Give what you can give, anyway you can, and give it with a lot of love. Nothing beats the gift of love.
"Happy" Breast Feeding!
