Breastfeeding Experience
By Jarina Shrestha
Breast feeding is an ideal nature’s system and the ideal food for a baby. Only mother is able to nourish baby at the breast. It is as much better and less expensive than the formula.
I read books and watched videos on the breastfeeding before my daughter was born. I thought that this would prepare me enough to breast feed easily but it was not as easy at the start as I thought. Breast feeding needs lot of patience and commitment. My husband and I knew that we need to put the baby on the breast as soon as after born. But we were so excited and watching her activities and completely forgot about that. After a couple of hours of delivery, babies go to deep sleep making it harder to feed.
I could not breast feed her at all for first couple of days. She was not latching on the breast. But I didn’t give up. I kept trying to put her in the breast. Even she was not on the breast, I was expressing breast milk to maintain milk supply; and we feed her the milk that we collected from breast expression. We finger fed her so that she can learn to latch on the breast. To make sure that our baby breast feeds, we avoided bottle all together for at least six weeks.
At first breast feeding was so difficult that I felt extremely depressed because I was not able to feed my child. After a couple of weeks persistently trying to breast feed, the baby along with finger feeding started to latch on to the breast. Because she was still not latching properly, my nipple got damaged. It took patience, persistence and support from my husband and the family for the baby to latch on properly from the seventh week.
Breastfeeding has been a wonderful experience for me. Breast feeding is not only feeding the baby, but also brought me close to my baby. I want everybody to know that breastfeeding exclusively is great. It is a great investment of time and commitment that will pay high rewards for both mother and baby. I would recommend that if you can breastfeed, do it. It is definitely worthy.
Also published in www.kathmandumetro.com issue 03 – 2006
Breastfeeding: My experience-II
By Jarina Shrestha
It was an amazing experience how milk supply works. I heard about women unable to nourish baby due to lack of adequate milk supply. I was worried that I would not be able to supply enough milk for my baby. I learnt from the books and classes I had taken about breastfeeding that breast milk is basically demand and supply. The more you feed your baby, the more milk you produce. In the beginning, I thought that I was not producing enough milk. I was constantly watching my daughter’s wet and poop diaper to make sure that she was getting enough milk. Also, I was feeding her frequently and expressing milk after each feeding to increase milk supply.
I have heard people saying to eat this and that to increase milk supply. But my experience was defiantly balanced diet is necessary for nursing mother to increase the milk supply. You also need to stimulate your brain, which happens from baby’s sucking or expressing milk to make more milk.
The first few weeks after giving birth were a critical time for establishing the milk supply. My daughter was not latching properly. During that time, I frequently empted the breasts to maintain the milk supply, this set and controlled the level of milk production. I knew that the milk supply can rapidly drop if the baby is not sucking properly or is not latched on well to stimulate the milk production process. I was frequently feeding my baby even at night. I didn’t give a bottle to my baby even at night because it often leads to a low milk supply. Because of my husband and family members’ great help, I was getting enough rest during the day and good nutrition, so I was able to breast feed at night, which helped me to maintain my milk supply.
The breasts work on the law of supply and demand. The more baby “tells” mother’s breasts to make milk, the more milk she will have. By allowing your baby to nurse more frequently for a few days, your body will receive the message that more milk is needed for your growing baby. Once your supply has increased, your baby will usually return to his/her usual routine.
Also published in www.kathmandumetro.com issue 02 – 2007