My Breastfeeding Journey

When I was still pregnant, I was asked if I planned to breastfeed, and my response was I planned to try. After all, I had read and heard stories of mothers who insisted on only breastfeeding, but did not have sufficient supply, of mothers who had bad engorgement, mastitis and infections. I was not about to insist that I would breastfeed till Junior is x months/years old when I did not know if I would have sufficient supply and so on. Now, 5 months and almost 2 weeks on, I just bought went and bought an electric pump. You would think the breastfeeding is the most natural thing in the world and would thus be rather easy. You would be wrong. I started breastfeeding in the hospital. I had absolutely no clue what I was doing, if I was doing it right if Junior was getting anything from me. I knew enough that my milk would probably not be in yet, and that I would only be producing colostrum, and that the baby had sufficient reserves to last till my milk came in. However, I had no idea as to whether I was producing any colostrum in the first place, and if Junior was getting any of it. All I knew was that it hurt. And I mean H.U.R.T. Junior wasn’t quite latching properly and was mostly biting on the nipple. And he would fall asleep very soon after he ‘latched’ on. Although the nurses helped me latch him on a few times, and the Lactation Consultant came by, I was still at a loss. The day before I was discharged, I had her come again for more advice. At home, I also tried my best to latch him on as often as possible, with the exception of one or two feeds, where I expressed using a manual pump while the Confinement Lady fed him formula on the advice of the pediatrician due to his jaundice. After confinement was over, I still expressed about once a day so that Mum or The Husband could take over one feed so that I could have a little more rest, especially needed since he was feeding every two hours. The Husband tried to take over one feed per night, but as Junior was rather colicky then, he was having none of it and fussed terribly. We soon gave up that idea, but I still expressed once daily, mainly to store for emergencies. All this time, I had been using the Avent manual pump given to me by my sister-in-law and a family friend, which I was very happy with. In the hospital, I was encouraged to get the Medela Pump In Style, but at almost $700, I decided to take a wait-and-see approach, especially since I had no idea if I would have sufficient milk. However, as time wore on, I noticed that I was starting to get repetitive stress on my wrists from all the expressing. It was then that I toyed with the idea of getting an electric pump, but did not act on it. When I started work, I was more and more tempted to get an electric pump as it was rather time consuming to express a decent amount. According to my research, most electric breast pumps are open systems, meaning that the tubes that create the suction will often collect milk and thus must be cleaned or mold and bacteria will thrive. However, they are not easy to clean. Also, double electric pumps tend to be in the range of $700+ and more. I could only find one pump which is a closed system, which is the Ameda. When Robinson’s was having a 20% storewide discount Deepavali weekend, The Husband and I popped over to have a look, and since they only had one Ameda Lactaline left, we bought it. It’s wonderful and I don’t know why I waited till now to get one. My wrists do not hurt anymore and I can express about 50ml more when I pump at work. In order to get more sleep the past two nights, I have been using my manual pump so that I do not have to get up and ensure that the electric pump parts are washed and sterilized when I do the middle of the night pump. And my wrists have started to hurt again. I know it is odd to invest in an electric pump after 5 months, especially since some mothers stop breastfeeding once the baby turns 6 months old. However, the way I figure it, since I intend to breastfeed for as long as possible, past a year if I can, it is still money well spent.