A friend claimed her body is not producing enough milk for her daughter. I told her it's not true.
How do you know if there is "enough" milk for your baby? My answer is you will never know. Our breasts are not transparent for us to say there is not enough supply for the baby.
Just because your body produce a bit less than others, doesn't mean the milk is not enough for your baby. Comparing your amount with others is not right. Each body is different.
Talking mainly based on MY experience, our body will only produce milk when there is stimulant. What is a stimulant? It is a signal telling the brain to send signal to your breasts to produce milk. Who is the stimulant? It's your baby. NOT your pump! Why must we need the stimulant? To tell the body when we need the milk to be produced. Without the stimulant, body won't produce milk.
Some of you will start saying that it's a "supply and demand" process. Yes, it is true but let me remind you that the boobies need stimulant too!
My breastfeeding journey was not all easy. I had a big fight with my MIL at the beginning. She was concerned that my milk is not enough. That I didn't produce sufficient milk for my son and bla bla bla. I was really frustrated and had to shut her out. Talking about post-partum syndrome here.
Few days later, my breasts started to become so big. It was so heavy and big. I almost caught a fever. My nipples flushed and my son started to get cranky. He cried so loud and I didn't know what to do. I purposedly didn't buy any breast pump because I wanted to concentrate on direct feeding. I tried few remedies; wrap the breasts with cabbage, lather on tamarind juice on top and lastly wrap the breasts with hot towel. After a few trials, I gave up and borrowed my SIL's breast pump.
It was very challenging and painful. I had to deal with the pain from the stitches down below and pain from the engorgement. By that time, my nipple started to cracked. Both nipples were seriously sore. Another pain I had to endured. I cried every time I fed the baby until one time I just couldn't take it. My mother had to spoon fed my son because it was too painful. It took me around two weeks to get everything sorted out.
So you see, it really wasn't an easy start for me. Some people had a smooth journey while others don't. That's just something that only we, mothers can enjoy.
I'm not saying that by feeding your babies with formula, making you a bad mother. I'm telling you to try your very best to breastfeed your baby. Take charge of yourself. Don't give up. All mothers have the special ability to feed their babies so why surrender your baby to THE COW when you can give them the best milk of all? Just think about that.
