I joined Breastfeeding Pinay on my 25th week of pregnancy. Why? Because I want to breastfeed my son – Sabv. I was a formula fed baby and my younger brother was breastfed for 2 years. I saw the difference of it between the two of us – be being an asthmatic person and of course he who seldom got sick. I read all valuable information in the albums, checked on admin notes and posts. I thought it will be easy for me since I got enough information from the group - I was wrong. Sabv was delivered earlier than expected. I wasn’t able to submit my birth plan to my ob at that time. I got ruptured water bag that brought me to have an emergency Cesarean delivery. This is not my plan – because I heard being a CS mom will be one of the hindrance in my breastfeeding journey. I strongly requested to my ob to have my Unang yakap before the operation – she said, it depends on Sabv’s recovery. I have a chance to have a quick Unang yakap – to breastfeed him for the first time. The experience is priceless.
My son needed to stay in NICU because the pedia said his lungs was under observation– usually encountered by preterm babies. For the first night he brought in the room to breastfeed because I am still recovering from operation. We usually called in the NICU nurse to bring him to us for feeding. I have problem on my first day. He had a poor latch because his lips and mouth were so small. He was just 2kg when he popped out. He had a hardtime and unable to latch. We were asked to use nipple shield by the lactation nurse in the NICU. I always asked the nurse how many wet diapers that he had so I can gauge if he is getting milk from me.
Two days after the operation, I go to the NICU room every 2-3 hours to feed him up. We don’t wait for the nurse to call us because we voluntary go there. The substitute ‘pedia’ gave me prescription of a formula milk though I told her that I will breastfeed him. What she did? She took a note of it – If breastmilk is inadequate, give him this ******* milk brand. My hubby almost gave up, he doubted of my milk supply too. He said he is seeing nothing until on my 4th day where I hand expressed excess milk.
We went to the province on the 5th day. The first night outside the hospital was very challenging. I can’t get into right position – until I mastered the football hold position. Breastfeeding pillow helped me because Sabv was too fragile. Having an environment that was not pro-breastfeeding was hard for me. They wanted Sabv to take formula milk because he was small and weight gain was not good.
On my first week I get rid of the nipple shield so I can breastfeed Sabv directly. I got a sleepy baby which leads to breast engorgement. I had sore nipples in the first three months and sleepless nights.
I am now proud that I surpassed everything. So far, we are still breastfeeding for 16mos – working in a graveyard shift. And the advocacy continues.
Thank you Breastfeeding Pinays for giving the right information and online support and to my breast friends for giving me the support when I was about to give up. Thank you for giving me a supportive husband that was with me through my journey.
In few months, Sabv will wean on his own but the satisfaction that I did everything to give him the absolute best start of his first 1,000 days of life will be my prize.
While breastfeeding may not seem the right choice for every parent, it is the best choice for every baby. -Amy Spangler
#BFPturns3 #breastfeedingpinays #normalizebreastfeeding
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