People tend see how much milk I have in the freezer but fail to see the effort that I've put in to achieve it. My milk surpluses even made my dear mil not think twice to pour leftover down the sink. I remember once fu couldn't finish his formula and it was left on the shelf for more than two hours. I was telling my mil, "倒掉吧，这么久了会生风。反正是奶粉我不会觉得那么心痛。"
Then came my mil's response, "eeeyer.. 奶粉用钱买的我反而觉得心痛!"
That's not to suggest that I will feed my children expressed breastmilk that'd been "aired" for hours but it's easy to infer what would come next if my mil continued her sentence. I replied as light-heartedly as I could, " 没良心，不用钱可是要费时间和精力来挤leh! "
I remember when I just delivered rachel, the pediatrician told me that it is even more important that premies have breastmilk only. He also said that they don't need much, only 1 - 3mls. I thought that's not too daunting.. It's just abt one teaspoonful. When I was back at the ward, I asked for the breastpump and started to stimulate the milk glands every 3 hours for half and hour (even though was only asked to do so for 15min). Until I was discharged, I could not get a single drop of milk. I was feeling totally useless, not being able to hold rachel for the full term and not being able to produce a single drop for her. Fortunately/unfortunately, the pediatrician felt rachel was not ready for oral feeds and put her on IV only for the first few days.
When I got home, my milk supply didnt arrive till the second day of discharge. That was after lots of anmum, bedrest and stimulation. I continued to stimulate with the avent pump (instead of Medela as i felt is closer to that of infant's suck) every 3 hours, for half hour each session, even in the middle of the night. So that meant that after I'm done expressing, I would need to wake up in about 2.5 hours' time since interval is calculated from "start to start".
When my milk finally arrived, I soon found myself oversupplying and I attributed that to over-stimulation. I was happy with the milk flow but was feeling totally exhausted. I felt alot more anxious this time as my newborn was not there to help me stimulate milk production and more so cos rachel needed it more than a full-term newborn. Eventually, when I found the freezer piling up with my supply, I decided (after heeding erjie's advice)to express less. As oversupplying takes a toll on mybody and the milk will become less rich.
So if you ask me for breastfeeding tips, do the following religiously:
1) Stimulate (best way is to let the baby latch) + massage
2) Eat and drink well
3) Rest - Sleeping is the best
4) have faith - your milk will come
and DON'T be tempted to give formula to your inborn. Your baby's digestive is not ready for formula and it creates a vicious cycle in reducing your supply (baby gets less hungry and will latch less).
Remember that your supply will take a few days to arrive but that's ok as your new born has enough reserves to last a week without food/water. Be mentally prepared that your baby's weight will drop upon discharge due to water loss.
All the best to all mothers-to-be! You can do it!
Here's how my expressed milk looks like, notice that hindmilk is thicker than foremilk. So let your baby empty one side before proceeding to the other side (if necessary) to ensure that he/she gets the richer hindmilk.
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