BF

A few months back, BF would still mean BoyFriend to me.
Now, BF has totally got a new meaning ... Breast Feeding that is
& together with bring a new string of abbreviation

try BMI?
don't worry, it still stands for Body Mass Index
well, now Breast Milk Index seemed to mean more to me =p

Before I proceed, allow me to say thank you very much to all who have supported me throughout my breastfeeding experience especially my love ones & my group of close friends who not only supported me emotionally(by borrowing me their ears and shoulder) but also financially. I'm able to invest in a good breast pump with their help (sponsoring). Also friends & colleagues who share their knowledge, books & magazines with me in their quest to help me conquer my problems.

there are a few personal experience which I would like to share (although everyone's experience is unique to mother & baby) ... hopefully these may give you a little idea what to expect when it comes (not like me...blur blur)

1. there will be well meaning & experienced senior members of family / relatives / friends who advises you to supplement with formula milk. Their reasons range from 'afraid baby not full enough','breast milk is not thick enough to make baby full','you got no enough milk', 'your milk is too dilute'. Although they all mean well, perhaps they may not realise that every ounz of formula milk is the 'killer' of breast milk supply.

2. then there will be 'doctor' who instead of giving encouragement to breastfeed, advise a mother to supplement / give formula milk to her baby. Doctor gave a more 'doctorish' reason ... you've have no idea how much your baby has drank, he's not having enough...not full enough... which is why he's not sleeping well / colicky. (did I mentioned I try very hard to listen to this 'doctor' but failed miserably). Not all doctors are pro-breastfeed... some never even advised / mentioned about breastfeeding even after the baby is bornt. Instead the doctor's clinic are distributing free formula milk powder. It's good to know that lactation consultant is a better person to go to than doctors in general.

3. then there will also be the 'confinement lady' who naturally prefer 'formula milk' as they are able to adjust the feeding time as compared to 'breast milk' feeding time as and when demanded. This is crucial to them as they need to cook for the mother & help with household works...which is best done while baby is asleep (after feeding time is adjusted) every 2-3 hours. Pacifier is a 'must' for them which may cause nipple confusion ... creating more problems to mother who is trying to establish milk supply. Most confinement lady may not have fully breastfeed their baby thus they may think it's a norm that every baby drink formula milk ... it's really up to us to insist of breastfeeding. What I did was sharing with her all the chinese pregnancy and parenting magazines to give her understanding. I've also got to know that there's another group of confinement lady who are very pro-breastfeeding all for the wrong reason... they feed the mother with lots n lots of alcohol ... the baby will be very 'easy to care' ... sleeping most of the time even when the loud noises are unbearable.

4. then there are milk powder companies who on the surface seemed very supportive of your breastfeeding effort but turn around offering you their products (which is so good & sooo good). I've been getting phone calls from major baby formula milk brands ... they are providing very good follow ups (hopefully until you start your baby on formula milk).

5. then there are companies / employers who indirectly thwart our breastfeeding effort ... due to lack of support in term of facilities. I've known many who gave up breastfeeding upon the end of maternity leave (2 mths) due to reasons as such. It's short sighted of the organisation not to 'see' the long term benefit of breastfeeding .... children with better immune system translate into lesser leave taken by employees. Perhaps there's another reason employers are not providing ... when you need to feed formula milk, you need more money, you'll work harder to earn more money (this one I made up myself)

6. then there's myself to blame ... of course, there were things that I wished I may have done differently such as not being 'so eager to please' everyone who offered advices, not being confident enough with myself & my ability, not being insistent enough when I should be .... and the list goes on. I'm not still not good enough now but I learnt through my experience. I really do hope that my persistence 'a.k.a stubborness' was not a worthless effort.

the journey is really not easy and may not be getting easier ... I had a rocky start ... had my fair share of problems ... and now as we got 'steadier', I've new emerging problems ... my baby refuses to take anything from bottle but I need to go back to work. (i'm working on it now...anyone with any solutions? )

ps. going back to office, I'm going to 'advocate' for a breastfeeding / breast pumping room at each building via suggestion to HR. Well, of course I'll rope in the support of mums and mums-to-be (that included singles who have intention of having babies). I'll need all the support I can get. At least I hope many many more will get to benefit from this.