Even before giving birth, I had planned on exclusively breastfeeding my baby (at least up to 6 months) after having read the benefits and its advantages from magazines to forums and blogs. Well it turned out not the case.
Just a day after giving birth, nurses called/paged me almost every two hours to go to the nursery for breastfeeding and mommy-baby bonding. At that time, I never produced any milk because Amber had difficulty latching on my small breasts. Good thing that the hospital fed her formula to make up for my deficiency.
In the hope of producing more milk, I decided to pump but unfortunately, the highest quantity I had produced was 40ml (which only happened once!). The most I had produced was maximum 20ml. I know that letting Amber suck most of the time (which I still do anyway) helps produce milk but I still don't think my milk were enough; thus I settled to also feed her formula. At first, it was depressing knowing that I can't produce much milk for her but I consoled myself that not being able to exclusively breastfeed does not make one a bad mother contrary to my earlier belief that I have failed being a mother since day one.
Amber turns 4 months old today. I am proud to say that she is healthy considering she doesn't take vitamins (doctors here don't prescribe vitamins, they are firm advocates of breast milk. I do have Tiki-Tiki from Philippines but I don't regularly give her). She has no record of sickness to date (Nature forbid!) and hopefully, she'll continue to grow healthy and smart. I plan to breastfeed her until the time she weans herself from it.
I am not encouraging soon-to-be mothers from doing the same thing as what I am doing. As much as you can, breastfeed your babies exclusively because not only it is beneficial for both baby and mother, it is also financially beneficial.
In the end, after having exhausted your best efforts as a mother, your baby has to be fed.
Just a day after giving birth, nurses called/paged me almost every two hours to go to the nursery for breastfeeding and mommy-baby bonding. At that time, I never produced any milk because Amber had difficulty latching on my small breasts. Good thing that the hospital fed her formula to make up for my deficiency.
In the hope of producing more milk, I decided to pump but unfortunately, the highest quantity I had produced was 40ml (which only happened once!). The most I had produced was maximum 20ml. I know that letting Amber suck most of the time (which I still do anyway) helps produce milk but I still don't think my milk were enough; thus I settled to also feed her formula. At first, it was depressing knowing that I can't produce much milk for her but I consoled myself that not being able to exclusively breastfeed does not make one a bad mother contrary to my earlier belief that I have failed being a mother since day one.
Amber turns 4 months old today. I am proud to say that she is healthy considering she doesn't take vitamins (doctors here don't prescribe vitamins, they are firm advocates of breast milk. I do have Tiki-Tiki from Philippines but I don't regularly give her). She has no record of sickness to date (Nature forbid!) and hopefully, she'll continue to grow healthy and smart. I plan to breastfeed her until the time she weans herself from it.
I am not encouraging soon-to-be mothers from doing the same thing as what I am doing. As much as you can, breastfeed your babies exclusively because not only it is beneficial for both baby and mother, it is also financially beneficial.
In the end, after having exhausted your best efforts as a mother, your baby has to be fed.
1 comment:
Amber is so cute!!!
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