Factor of Successful Breastfeeding Which Never Revealed

"BLESSING" is the most important factor of a successful breastfeeding.

I won't discuss about the benefit of breastfeeding, it is obviously the best feeding for the newborn. The nutrient content of breast milk will be sufficient for the baby's requirement for the first 6 months of their life. If you surf to the internet, I believed no articles would say breastfeeding is bad. All of them will say that breast milk is the best for both mom and baby. That is why; many mothers begin to concern about the importance of breastfeeding their babies.

Moreover, breastfeeding has been a certain fanaticism for some women. They'll feel so guilty if they can not breastfeed their baby. I know some of them; one of my friends decided to resign from her promising career in order to be able to exclusively breastfeed her baby, another friend was actively breast pumping during her working hour to fulfill her baby's need when she left him for work.

I'm also one of the "victims" of this fanaticism. I bought a quite expensive breast pump, woke up in the middle of the night and early in the morning just for collecting every drops of my breast milk. I did this routine for one year.

I know I was one of a very lucky woman. I understand many women out there are not as lucky as I am. That's why I wrote on top of this article, the most important factor of successful breastfeeding is; God's Blessing. No matter how hard our effort, it won't work unless God give us the breast milk's portion for breastfeeding.

Theoretically, our breast milk will be abundance if we consume more vegetables, nuts or soy milk. But, if God did not put your name on the list of breast milk's receiver, I believe you can not provide as much breast milk as you expected. I can write it because I have proved it.

Sometimes, I plan to increase my milk supply by consuming mustard greens (light colored and darker colored) as well as drinking soy milk, but the resulted milk of that day is just average amount. On the other day, when I consume a standard menu, my breast was getting harder and of course I could provide more milk than usual. From this experience, I got one conclusion; there is an x-factor which makes a breastfeeding possible, that is; God's blessing.

It's OK not to breastfeed and replace it with formula milk

Unsuccess Story #1

One of my friends, named Aldora, has canceled her plan to resign from her office because her effort of breastfeeding was failed.

She actually has followed nursing methods from her breastfeeding "Bible", one of the theories is the “supply and demand theory”, in which the more frequently a mother breastfeed the baby, the more her breast milk supply will be.

Aldora keep try to urge her baby to suck from her nipple, but the baby seemed not to be satisfied. She kept on trying and avoiding the formula milk, but she got no result. Her baby cried even louder and may not sleep.

Finally, she surrendered. She decided to withdraw her retirement letter because she thought “Why I stop working if I can not breastfeed my baby?”. Besides, she needs money to buy the expensive formula milk...

Unsuccess Story #2

Dian, another friend of mine, had a different story. She had blessed with abundant amount of breast milk, but she experienced "breast milk dam". It is because of severe injury in one of her nipple and the doctor told her to stop breastfeeding from the injured breast. Finally her injured breast was swollen, broke out and discharged pus mixed with breast milk. She did not have any other choice except stop breastfeeding.

Learning from my friend's experience which performed a great effort to have a successful breastfeeding, but still not get the expected result, I became more certain that breast milk production is fully authorization of God. Our obligation is - like my friends - struggling and struggling, such as; breast massage or consuming more vegetables and nuts. If the portion of our babies is not our breast milk, then we better be grateful to God, hoping His blessing to our children trough formula milk they drink.

That's the stories of us, what about yours? Please share if you wish.

Expressing Milk Management

Now, it’s time for you going back to work, leaving your baby at home. You can delegate the baby nursing task to other people, but there’s one important task you can not delegate to anybody, including your husband. Yes, it’s breastfeeding.
Luckily, many baby product manufacturers have already invented breast pump which can help working mother providing breast milk while she left her baby for working. However, a best breast pump will not provide an optimum amount of breast milk without a good time management of expressing milk.
In this post, I will share my experience on managing a time schedule for expressing breast milk in order to fulfill my baby’s requirement on breast milk. For your information, I’ve to leave home from 6 am to 4.30 pm on Monday till Saturday.

Time                            Activity
5.45 am -6 am             Breastfeed my baby before going to office
11.30 am – 12 am        1^st milk pumping, achieve approximately 200 cc
12 am – 1.30 pm         Lunch
3 pm                            End of my working hour
3 pm – 3.30 pm           2^nd milk pumping, achieve approximately 100 cc
4.30 pm – 8 pm           arrive at home, nurse the baby directly from the breast
8 pm                            my baby sleeps, I usually go to sleep too

11 pm – 11.30 pm       3rd milk pumping, achieve approximately 100 cc

11.30 pm – 4 am         go to sleep again, nurse the baby from one breast only

4 am – 4.30 am            4th milk pumping from the other breast, get minimum 100 cc

Expressed breast milk, Don't forget to give labels ^-^

By conducting this kind of arrangement, I can provide minimum 500 cc breast milk a day. Usually, I divided into 5 milk bottles (@ 100 cc).  It was indeed not as much as I saw on the TV when a mother can save hundreds bottles of breast milk to supply her twins requirement of breast milk while she left home for days. She showed us her freezer which was full with expressed milk.
However, I always be thankful that my expressed milk is sufficient to fulfill my baby’s requirement on breast milk, so he can have breast milk exclusively for 6 months and continued until he was 20 months old.
Well, that’s my story, how about yours?
Enjoy your breastfeeding!

PIGEON: My Best Breast Pump

Well, maybe Pigeon is not the best breast pump you can find in the market, but for me Pigeon Manual Breast Pump is the best breast pump I’ve ever possessed. It helped me providing more than enough breast milk for my second baby so I can give him exclusive breastfeeding for six months.

Pigeon is not my first breast pump. As I’ve delivered my first baby girl, my mom bought me a very cheap breast pump. This pump used a bulb connecting with a plastic tube. It did work actually, but with so many limitations, such as:

1. This breast pump will work only if my breast is extremely full.
2. This breast pump can not help me pumping until my breast is empty.
3. I need to do both hand to operate, so it was very complicated and tiring.
4. Causing pain in breast because it worked by pulling the nipples to express the milk.
5. It produced only a little amount of expressed milk, the maximum amount I can provide with this pump was only 100 cc.
6. Very difficult to be cleaned.

The fact was; my pumping effort with this breast pump was not worthy with the expected result.

My First and Cheap Breast Pump

Actually, a friend has already bought a Pigeon Manual Breast Pump and offered me to use hers. But, when I did a trial on this breast pump, I decide not to purchase this pump, because of some reasons;

1. The resulted expressed milk is not as much as I expected.
2. It’s very complicated to assembly and re-assembly.

But that was 5 years ago, in 2007. At that time, my cheap manual breast pump cost only IDR 50.000 (about USD 5.5) and my friend’s Pigeon Manual Breast Pump cost IDR 95.000 (about USD 10.5).

Finally, I could only breastfeed my little Jasmine for 4 monthsL.

In 2010, when I delivered my second baby, Pigeon has already redesigned its breast pump. Although the price is much higher than its previous generation, I decided to purchase one. This new generation of Pigeon manual breast pump cost IDR 309.000 (about USD 34.3). Well, it’s not a cheap thing for us.

But soon I realized something; this expense was truly an investment. Why?

1. Because I don’t have to buy any expensive formula milk for 6 months.
2. More important, I could give my baby a golden standard of infant feeding, which has the best of the best quality of nutrient. The value of breast milk is incomparable with any kind of other infant feeding, right?

Now, why I’m so thankful to this Pigeon Manual Breast Pump? Because to me, this product has many advantages;

1. Very light, very portable.
2. Very easy to dismantle, very easy to be cleaned.
3. Very easy to operate, I can operate this pump with one hand, while another hand is holding my phone cell.
4. The most important thing, it can express until the last drop of milk left in the breast.
5. Moreover, it can provide more breast milk in a short time (comparing with my previous cheap breast pump). I can produce about 200 cc of breast milk in only half hours (with my older pump, only 100 cc in 1 hour!). So, I don’t have to leave my desk too long.

With this pump, the amount of expressed milk I can provide is approximately 500cc/day and it’s enough for to supply my baby’s requirement when I left him for work from 6 AM-4.40 PM. In addition, I can exclusively breastfeed my baby for 6 months and keep continued until he was 20 months.

For me, this breast pump is my favorite gadget of this century ^-^. Thank you Pigeon!

Pigeon Manual Breast Pump; My Favorite Gadget

In the next post, I’ll write about how I manage a daily schedule on expressing breast milk.

See you ^-^

Chinese Baby Predictor Table

“This table is an easy, costless and fun tool to predict your baby’s gender”

When a woman gets pregnant, surely she’ll hope to carry a healthy baby as well as having a safe and easy delivery. However, there’s one more thing a mother will expect and is curious with; the baby’s gender.

The best tools to predict the baby’s gender is probably by conducting a - 4D- ultrasound. However, this procedure may be too expensive and the doctors usually do not recommend it unless you have something uncommon with your pregnancy.

Now, let me introduce you a table which can predict your baby’s gender. It’s very easy to read, and fun too.

Baby Predictor Table

A friend has shared me this table when I carried my first baby. From this table, I noticed that my baby will be a girl. This prediction is then supported by 2D-ultrasound during my 32nd week of pregnancy. Finally, my baby girl Jasmine was born on 24^th February 2007.

After my Jasmine was 2 years, we planned to have the second baby. This time, we’re expecting a boy. From the table, the opportunity to have a baby boy is bigger if the fertilization occurred in May-August 2009. Finally, in August 2009 I missed my menstruation and my baby boy Kairo was born in 5^th June 2010.

Once again, the table worked … ^-^

If at this moment you’re expecting a baby or planning to get pregnant, why don’t you try this table to predict your baby’s gender?

It’s not scientific, is it? Well, I agree. There are many theories (scientific theory and old mom’s one) about how to plan your baby’s gender. These theories may be controlling your diet, controlling the acidity of your private area, the position of sexual intercourse, the shape of mother’s tummy and so on and so on. 

However, no matter how hard our effort to have baby boy or baby girl, the final decision of what your baby’s gender will be is fully authorization of God.

For me, guessing and predicting my baby’s gender is always fun. But, I’ve never put this matter on my first consideration. The most important thing was I could pass my pregnancy safely, have an easy natural childbirth process and deliver a healthy baby. Boy or girl, I always thank God for any baby He entrusted to me and my husband.

That’s my story about predicting my baby’s gender. What about yours?

Side Effect of Breastfeeding

What is the difference between side effect of breastfeeding and benefits of breastfeeding?

Well, the benefits of breastfeeding are something we don’t need to debate. Breast milk is golden standard of infant feeding which has the most beneficial nutrient for babies. These make breast milk become the most precious gift for the newborn.

What I'm going to share here is the side effect of breastfeeding which is based on my real experience. And side effect is usually related with "negative" impact.

This side effect is similar with those in medication label which usually declare the side effects of consuming certain drugs, such as; nausea, constipation or sleepy. However, depending on the patient’s condition, not every person will experience such a side effect. This side effect of breastfeeding is just the same, not every woman will experience this uncomfortable situation. Unfortunately, it did happen to me. That's why I can write and share this story.

So, what I mean by side effect of breastfeeding is; (sorry) dryness in my vagina and causing a domino effect, pain during intercourse.

I’m a kind of woman who had no periods during breastfeeding. My breastfeeding for my first baby is only 4 months, so in the 5th month after delivery, I've already had my period just like usual. The breastfeeding time for my second baby lasts longer, which is 20 months, and I've just get back my menstruation 14 months after delivery.

Actually, the dryness of my vagina area is not a big problem; it was in fact made me more comfortable because I didn't feel dampness on this area. The problem was occurred when it's time to have a sexual intercourse. The pain caused trauma.

When I tried to discuss this matter with some friends on a healthy mailing list, they suggest me to do longer foreplay or creating a more supporting atmosphere before having sex. I've tried many efforts but get no result. I still always felt pain, poignant and burnt in my private area.

Finally, my husband tried to use a lubricant. Well, OK it's quite helpful. At the beginning, he could finally penetrate, but the feeling of pain and burnt inside the vagina can not diminish. It was just felt like being rubbed with coarse paper.

After my boy had his 1st birthday, I could not stand any longer and went to my obgyn. I hope there were some kinds of vitamins of supplement which cause lubrication effect but do not reduce my breast milk supply. Moreover, I also felt worry, because one of my friend thought that there's something wrong with my reproductive function and suggested me to consult with the obgyn.

According to the obgyn’s explanation, breastfeeding will inhibit the production of estrogen which has a very important role on menstruation cycle and produce “oil” in the vagina. He gave me two solutions. The first and instant solution; if I want a normal estrogen’s level back, I have to stop breastfeeding. But surely he didn’t recommend it. The second alternative was waiting until I pass the breastfeeding period, which is until my baby is 2 years (WHO recommendation). I can not imagine that I’ve to restrain with this pain for one more year until I finally can enjoy a sexual intercourse just like before.

Finally, I brought nothing from my obgyn as the result of my visit. He did not write recipe for any vitamins or supplement. I decided to accept this situation and waiting for my boy reach his second birthday. If this breastfeeding period ended and there’s no significant change, I promise to visit my obgyn again.

Fortunately I don’t have to wait for such a long time. Not long after my visit, I got my period and soon after that I can have a normal intercourse as before breastfeeding. The fact was after getting my normal menstruation, I did not feel anymore dryness in my private area.

That was my experience about breastfeeding’s side effect?

What about yours?

My Weaning from Breastfeeding Experience

OK, I admit, it was not my experience. It's actually my son's experience when he had to be separated from breast milk for the first time.

I know weaning from breastfeeding is not an easy process, because a mother had to face a dilemma; keep weaning her baby or delay this process because of the baby's excessive crying.

But thanks God, my son did not have to experience such a horror. So, let me share you what I did.

Actually, I've already planned to wean my baby since he was 18 months. At that moment, I had to go out of town for several days so I think it will be a good opportunity to separate him with my breast. But I had to delay this plan, because my breast milk supply was still abundant and I felt so pity to stop breastfeeding at that moment.

I’m a working mother, so my son has already recognized milk bottle and formula milk. He had these two items while I was working. However, he always refused formula milk when I was around. I also pumped my breast milk at the office until my baby was 1 year, so he’s truly familiar with the taste of breast milk.

Two months later, just 2 months before his second birthday, I think my breast milk supply was decreasing. So I bought a pack of Band-Aid and put them on both of my nipples. Then as he asked for breastfeeding, I showed him my breast and told him that my breast is wounded so he must drink from his milk bottle instead. Although my boy can already understand some simple statement, his first reaction was crying.

His crying was so touching that I almost re-stop my plan. Fortunately, he cried for only 5 minutes, (if he cried even longer, maybe I'll delay this plan to weaning from breastfeeding again) and began to accept his milk bottle and drink his formula milk. Since that day, he never returned to breast milk again.

***

That’s my story. What about yours? Do you face the same problems when weaning your baby from breastfeeding?

You can try what I’ve already done, or you can use other tools instead of Band-Aid. You can spread something bitter or other awful-taste liquid/cream on your breast (but just make sure you didn't put something poisonous or hazardous).

Uterine Fibroid Embolization Procedure

The basic principle of uterine fibroid embloization (UFE) is blocking the arteries that supply blood to the fibroids. The blockage is created by injecting small particles in the arteries. That's why uterine fibroid embolization is also known as uterine artery embolization (UAE). The blockage of the blood supply will cause degeneration of the fibroids.

The UFE procedure was first applied in fibroids patients in France as a means of reducing the blood loss that occurs during myomectomy. It was then discovered that after the embolization, the fibroids symptoms went away and further surgery was no longer needed.

The UFE Procedure

First, a needle is used to enter the artery to create access for the catheter. Before the embolization is started, an arteriogram is carried out to provide road map of the blood supply to the uterus and fibroids.

Catheter inserted into the artery

After that, particles of polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) are injected slowly with x-ray guidance. After several minutes, the arteries are completely blocked. Once one side is completed, the other side is embolized. Arterial flow will still be present to some extent to the normal portions of the uterus, but flow to the fibroids is blocked. This procedure takes approximately 1-1.5 hours and usually done in the hospital with an overnight stay after the procedure.

PVA blocked the blood supply to the fibroids

The Side Effects

Several hours of moderate to severe pain will be experienced by most UFE patients. Most UFE patients are hospitalized overnight and those symptoms are usually improved by the next morning, when the patients are allowed to go home. After that, patients may have periodic moderate to severe cramping for several days.

Patients may also feel tired, have a fever or nausea periodically. All these symptoms will be diminish after several days, but may last longer. For working women, they can usually go back to work in 7-14 days after the procedure.

The Complications

Complications after UFE are quite rare. However some complications that may occur after UFE procedures include;

-Injury to the uterus from decreased blood supply or infection.

- Injuries to other pelvic organs.

The good news is these complications is almost impossible and happened in less than 1% of patients.

The long term complications causing by x-ray exposure during embolization are not expected. However, a study measuring x-ray exposure was found to be below the level that can be harmful to the patient herself or future children.

The Possibility of Pregnancy After UFE

Actually UFE is not recommended for women who are still willing to carry babies since the outcome of pregnancy following UFE is not known.

Most women that had this procedure are finished with childbearing and only few of them have tried to become pregnant after UFE. So far, at least a dozen patients have become pregnant after UFE worldwide.

Another uncertain fact is whether this procedure affects the menstrual cycle. Most of the UFE patients were reported to decrease bleeding with normal menstrual cycles and only few of them have lost their periods after having UFE. However, it's uncertain and still need further study whether these cases are a result of decreasing ovarian function resulting from this UFE procedure.

The Expected Results

Nowadays, about 3000 patients have already had this procedure and most of them rated this procedure as very tolerable. 

The expected reduction in the volume of the fibroids is 50% in 3 months. However, it's not yet known if the fibroids can regrow after embolization.

Related post on this blog;

O My God, I'm Having Fibroids and Pregnancy

Medication and Surgery for Fibroids

Why Should Women Know About Fibroids

Uterine Fibroids Natural Treatment