Journey of a First Time Mom at the age of 28 years old

Recently, friends around me is getting married and having babies. It is very happy to see this. Even though I'm not the very first among my friend of having first baby, many of them came and ask about breast feeding, which I'm still currently doing and my little princess is now 9 months old.

Many would ask me how I came across this? Some would said it's tiring, some would said it's painful and some would said it makes the breast looks saggy! But I would said, it's magical how your breast can produce the best food for your baby! It has not been easy for me since from the first she's born, but we managed to come through it so far. I suffered from nipple cracked and it's bleed, being emotional for less milk supply,  milk duct which caused breast pain, fever and engorgement. It never stopped me from breastfeeding!

When the first time the nurse bring over my baby to nurse, I was so excited! It was wonderful that the nurse said I have milk for my baby. Well to correct the word, it's not milk which we produced after birth. It's colostrum and it contains antibodies to protect the newborn against disease - IT'S GOOD!

In order to stimulate enough milk for your baby, you need to latch your baby often. The more you latch your baby, the more supply you'll get. I'm so sad at first because there's no one there for me that time to guide me how to nurse and also to share the basic knowledge with me about breast feeding. I first got nipple cracked and it bleeds and it takes almost 3 weeks to recover, trust me it is SUPER PAINFUL! You shouldn't nurse your baby up to 40 minutes, you'll get nipple cracked! I nurse my baby from 3am until next day 7am in the hospital because whenever I pulled her mouth out from the nipple, she cries. If I would know this earlier, I would have stop all these from happening.

I started to latch again when my nipples recovered - during my confinement. At first, I mixed with formula because the confinement lady said my milk is still lack of supply. I remembered once when I spend almost 40minutes to pump the milk and my hubby actually spoils it by dumping it in a bucket of hot water and the hot water flows into the bottles  - TOTALLY RUINED! I got bad emotions, I cried and I cannot handle my feelings. Me and my hubby got into fight, he was yelling at me - he doesn't understand how hard it is to breast feed the baby with my bleeding nipples and painful c-sec wound.

After 3 weeks, thing gets better. I stop top up with formula milk and was able to fully breast feed my baby. Then something happened again! Engorgement! It is so painful, I have to breast feed and pump on time. The engorgement leads to milk duct! When you touch your breast, you can feel a little cube inside your breast. It doesn't feels good to me, I went to the gynae and they advise me to do my own massage, nothing much they can help. So I started to go online and search for massaging method, then I came across this page called "The Breastfeeding Advocates Network" also known as 'TBAN' in facebook, it has all the information I want! You can always seek help by posting your concern in the page and the mummies will answer to your post. I got a lactation consultant with the help of a daddy in the forum *LOL* don't be surprised, they're really good at it!

Okay, I guess I wrote too much and I don't think people love reading. In conclusion, please pump/latch on time to avoid engorgement and milk duct. Milk duct will lead to fever and also mastitis if you don't clear it. I'm a working mother so I do pumping at work and latch on whenever I'm around with my baby.

I'll share with you the pump I've used and also some details of lactation contact just in case you need help! When it comes to manual, I prefer AVENT ones because of it's suction but electrical one, I'll go for MEDELA, it's really saving up my time especially going back to work.

Good luck mummy, u're the best and always remember, breast milk is the best food for babies!

Aliyos.

Medela Dual Maxi Swing (Around RM1,200) : My 2nd pump - Time saving, easy to use, quiet, and easy to wash.

AVENT Manual & Electronic Pump (Around RM600) : First when I bought during my pregnancy - Freesytle (can adjust your own pumping rhythm), Time consuming (single pump), easy to use, noisy, too many compartment to wash. 

Lactation Consultant: Ms. Elizabeth  (+60192163758)

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