I bought my first breastpump before the delivery of my 1st child. Don’t know why, but breastfeeding and expressing breastmilk was,to me, part and parcel of having a baby. An ex-colleague of mine kindly advised against getting a hand operated pump citing ‘hand cramps’ as her major issue with them. So my first pump was an electric single breast pump. My first…..not my last!

I went through three electric pumps in the first one and a half years. My major problem was backflow of milk into the darn motor. Once that happenned, there was no chance of using the pump discreetly. The motor would sputter and it would begin to sound like I was taking a ride on a motorised sampan in Phuket everytime I used it. At this stage, the pump would only last a few more days before it ceased all noise making….and operating, permanently. Then came the urgency to replace it immediately so that I could continue to express my milk for my allergy-ridden baby.

After pump number three started giving me problems, I decided to invest in an Ameda Lactaline double pump which I bought from the Breastfeeding Mothers’ Support Group in Singapore. It was really a pleasant upgrade! No more backflow problem, no more noisy motor and it was super efficient in getting me to have a letdown.  Phew!

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• Be Confident So how did I come across the idea of breastfeeding? While expecting my first baby, I happenned to be working in an infantcare centre based in a women's and children's hospital - lucky me! My colleagues included nurses and aides who would share little nuggets of information on breastfeeding and related child health......

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My 1st baby was breastfed for 3 years. I am really very thankful that I was able to continue to express my breastmilk when I went back to work just before he turned 2 months old.

Truth be told, my employers actually encouraged me to continue breastfeeding and allowed me time and space to do the ‘daily pump’. In turn, I shared my experience and helped our clients who were new mums embarking on their breastfeeding journey. I recall helping a young mum who was not too sure how to position her baby during feeding. Having my own experience made it all so natural for me to help her out.

I finally quit my job to look for a position nearer to my home so that I could spend less time commuting and more time with the baby. I was offered a place which was literally a stone’s throw away from home. This meant that I could use my lunchtime to go home and express milk, which in turn meant, no more carrying my pumpand breastmilk bags around! How blessed I was to have everything fall neatly into place….

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• Milk Allergies It was just before my baby turned 2 months that I returned to work full-time. I was fortunate enough to have my mum look after him during my working hours and would express my breastmilk a day in advance for her to feed him with. I also bought a tin......

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I’ll be the first to admit that I did not really know much about breastmilk when I started breastfeeding bub no1. All I knew was that I wanted to try it out and was encouraged to do so by my colleagues, my gynaecologist and the paediatrician.

I’ve definitely come a long way from then and would just like to share a few insights on breastmilk – so here goes…

• breastmilk is by far superior to any and all infant formulas, it IS the Gold Standard for human infant nutrition- formulas are ony superficial replicas of breastmilk, they in no way contain all the nutrients available in breastmilk nor do they deliver the common nutrients to the baby’s bloodstream as effectively.
• to this very day, medical journals are still describing new discoveries on valuable substances found in human milk. Scientists are only just beginning to write on other factors in breastmilk that may be important to baby’s growth and development.
• every deficiency in formula milk that is rectified is marketed as an advance or breakthrough in infant nutrition…even I was wondering about the DHAs recently advertised to be included in formulas. Hello! These are all components of breastmilk
• breastmilk is a ‘live’ substance which contain enzymes, hormones,antibodies and living cells (white blood cells) all of which aid in baby’s development. These are all notably absent in infant formulas.

There is just so much more information on the goodness of breastmilk. You can read a bit more about it here and look at a comparison with formula here. I really feel that there is a lack of awareness when it comes to breastfeeding. It is still more the exception than the norm amongst most mothers to breastfeed totally for the first 6 months of their baby’s life.

Well, if you knew that you were paying premium prices for an inferior product, would you still buy it? Especially when one that is proven to be THE best in its class is practically free?

• Breastpumps...a working mum's best friend! I bought my first breastpump before the delivery of my 1st child. Don't know why, but breastfeeding and expressing breastmilk was,to me, part and parcel of having a baby. An ex-colleague of mine kindly advised against getting a hand operated pump citing 'hand cramps' as her major issue with them.......
• Breastfeeding, Celebrities leading the way? I happenned to stumble upon this old blog post from another site that mentioned celebrities, like Katie Holmes, Gweneth Paltrow, Mira Sorvino, Geri Halliwell, Rachel Weisz, and Gwen Steffani, breastfeeding their babies back in 2006. The interesting question posed was, "Does it matter?  Does hearing about famous women breastfeeding make......

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It was just before my baby turned 2 months that I returned to work full-time. I was fortunate enough to have my mum look after him during my working hours and would express my breastmilk a day in advance for her to feed him with. I also bought a tin of formula as back-up…just in case.

Well, one day, the situation arose where my little one had to use the formula – the hungry bub had finished up all my expressed breastmilk earlier. He drank just a little bit of the formula then refused the rest. Then he turned pallid and threw up. Hives appeared as well. By the time I got to him from work, he was lethargic and cranky. I recognised the symptoms of allergy (his dad has numerous allergies!) and gave him cool bath to relieve his hives. He was much better after being breastfed – thank goodness he didn’t drink that much of the formula.

The next time we visited his paeditrician, we shared what had happenned. The paeditrician suggested that he may have a milk allergy but told us that most babies grow out of it. We also told him that our baby refused all other types of milk – soy based and goat’s milk – and would only take my breastmilk, to which he replied, “Well, he’s already had the best (breastmilk), why would he want anything else?” Thus having little or no alternative, I learnt to incorporate breastfeeding and expressing my breastmilk as part of my everyday life…and I’ve had no regrets since

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So how did I come across the idea of breastfeeding?

While expecting my first baby, I happenned to be working in an infantcare centre based in a women’s and children’s hospital – lucky me! My colleagues included nurses and aides who would share little nuggets of information on breastfeeding and related child health issues. They shared that the ability to produce breastmilk was not only dependant on the mother’s nutrition but that having a positive mindset – I CAN and am ABLE to do this – and a supportive environment was just as important.

A few friends have since shared that they stopped trying to breastfeed because they felt unsure about producing sufficient breastmilk and that the people around them (who happenned to be, more often than not, their own mums or MILs) would comment, “Is that (breastmilk) enough?” , “Why don’t you use (such-and-such) formula. The advertisement says it’s full of added nutrients.” I guess comments like these, coming from people close to you, really undermines the confidence of any new mother attempting to breastfeed.

I came across this little story about having proper support when breastfeeding. Read this somewhere too – ‘the key to sustained breastfeeding is confident commitment’.

www.mybreastmilkbaby.com

• Working and Breastfeeding My 1st baby was breastfed for 3 years. I am really very thankful that I was able to continue to express my breastmilk when I went back to work just before he turned 2 months old. Truth be told, my employers actually encouraged me to continue breastfeeding and allowed me......
• Milk Allergies It was just before my baby turned 2 months that I returned to work full-time. I was fortunate enough to have my mum look after him during my working hours and would express my breastmilk a day in advance for her to feed him with. I also bought a tin......

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I happenned to stumble upon this old blog post from another site that mentioned celebrities, like Katie Holmes, Gweneth Paltrow, Mira Sorvino, Geri Halliwell, Rachel Weisz, and Gwen Steffani, breastfeeding their babies back in 2006. The interesting question posed was, “Does it matter?  Does hearing about famous women breastfeeding make it easier for regular folks like us, or are they too far out of the mainstream to make a difference?”

Well the truth is that, here in Singapore, where the majority of the population is conservative it would really help if  local celebrities were to bring more attention to breastfeeding (some of them actually do breastfeed their babies) rather than become spokeswomen or the face for any brand of formula milk, whose company is willing to pay their asking fee.

www.mybreastmilkbaby.com

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• Breast Milk, The Best Gift for your Baby! Welcome to my very first post on my blog, mybreastmilkbaby.com, on this little corner of cyberspace I have decided to share my experience, thoughts, feelings and personal anecdotes on all things related to breastfeeding. In doing so, I hope to encourage and empower mums-to-be to enjoy the many benefits that......

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