Suzette's Parenting and Breastfeeding Blog

Well, noticed lately there are confinement services (CL and such) keep posting in comments in this blog, advertising their numbers and services.

Please note that if you are interested to advertise here, please read from the page Advertise. Do not simply post your ‘advertisements’ in the comments as they will be all removed.

Particularly for confinement services, if you are a Confinement Lady, I would like to know your knowledge and attitude towards breastfeeding. I wouldn’t simply allow your advertisement here, without knowing your stance on breastfeeding, knowing many mothers who intend to breastfeed ended up failed BECAUSE OF CONFINEMENT LADY’s INTERFERENCE or DISCOURAGEMENTS.

Anyway, since on the same topic, I would like to also share a sad story here.

My sister’s friend’s sister (whatever), just jumped off a tall building, on CNY eve. When she jumped off the building, her baby was only a couple of weeks old. The news was in SinChew Daily.

She is a lecturer in UniTAR, a supposedly cheerful person, looks very young from her photo in SC.

She planned to beastfeed her baby but faced tremendous pressure. She lives with parents in law and grandparents in law. She had a CL too. All did not give her moral support, kept saying she had no milk (common remark from ppl without bfg knowledge). When milk came in, she had engorgement, but milk couldn’t come out (probably due to the same reason my sister faced — milk blister).

When she had the problem, unfortunately Dr. Koe was away for holiday and would be back a month later.

She developed depression soon, and sneaked out of the room on CNY eve when everyone else were busy and not noticed, jumped off a building somewhere else.

Honestly, in my first confinement, I nearly got into depression too. I used to live on 13th floor, and many times the thought of jumping off the building flashed in my mind. All thanks and no thanks to the CL I had. Well, that CL wasn’t even a person with strong character! I just can’t imagine those people who have CL with strong character (like my SIL had once), and living with in-laws who give sarcastic remarks on bfg attempts (thank God my in-laws are very supportive!!). I only had that soft-spoken CL who had no knowledge of bfg, not very approving my attempts –> and that could already cause me into near depression. If I had been living like that poor lady my sister knew, I guess I would have jumped off the 13th floor too.

Whatever it is, the morale of this story is that:
1) If you intend to breastfeed, don’t give yourself too much pressure. Remember, the intention is good for your baby. If you get into depression because of that, it will do no good to your baby, so defeat the purpose!

2) Before you do something bad to yourself, think of the baby first. When you are not around, what would happen to your baby?

3) Have good talk with the people and get their support, before the birth of your baby. Get their consensus and educate them first. If can’t, be mentally prepared to face the pressure to come, but don’t stress yourself.

4) Husband’s support is utmost. Seek his support first.

5) Get contact of more than one Lactating Consultant:

Dr. Koe (She is the most popular/favorite LC amongst breastfeeding moms because she is also a paediatrician.)
Address: 73 Jalan Mega Mendung, Kompleks Bandar, 5th Mile Jalan klang Lama, 58000 Kuala Lumpur
Tel: 03-79830539
Consultation Hours :
Monday-Friday: 9.00 am – 1.00 am/ 6.00 pm – 8.30 pm
Thursday: 9.00 am – 12.30 pm
Thursday Night / Sunday / Public Holidays – Closed
Saturday: 9.00 am – 12.30 pm

Dr. Pearl. This is another LC that you can use in case Dr. Koe is not accessible. Recommended by Busymum. Dr. Pearl is a GP, who is also an LC. She is knowledgeable enough to help you, but not that preferred because she is not a paediatrician (and I was old that she doesn’t have any children yet).
Telephone: 012 3045534/ 03 62032837

6) Mix with people who have successfully breastfed, talk to them whenever you face any challenges. Mothers would know mothers better.

I want to reiterate, water is NOT necessary for babies who are 100% breastfed. I have written before, in detail, explaining why breastfed babies shouldn’t be given water at all.

It is not that we are obsessive of what we give to our babies, but it has medical reasons why water should not be given to babies.

Remember, it does more HARMS than goods to the babies. Do NOT give water at all to your babies, if he/she is 100% (exclusively) breastfed, okay?

If you plan to give birth in the hospital, you might be worrying what to pack and what to bring. Here is a place you can find printable checklist for things to be brought to hospital, i.e. what to pack for your Hospital Bag.

When I gave birth to Ian, I had a checklist from Pantai Hospital, so I didn’t really need this. I’m not sure if they still give out similar list or not. No harm checking this out.

I would add one more item to the list though, from my experience with the epidural. After the epidural’s effect is gone, you will feel nauseous. You might want to bring some candy to suck, to reduce the feeling.

One tip to release the ‘wind’ in your stomach after the epidural, is to drink this ginger soup. I know, I know, not to take too much of ginger post delivery, but this soup is very useful. It ’saved my life’ before. I was reluctant to drink, but nearly vomited in the delivery room post epidural. I drank it, immediately burped out the ‘wind’, and then nauseous gone, I was completely okay after that.

This soup is made this way:
- Extract the juice of 1 large pc of old ginger.
- Boil it with a chunk of lean meat (pork or beef).
That’s it. No need seasonings, already tastes good, and effective too.

A Spanish toy company has introduced a Breastfeeding Doll recently, and The Fox News shows ‘Red Eye’ took up the question: Is the Breastfeeding Doll an appropriate toy for girls?

Honestly, I really dislike the way the host and the guests make joke & fun of breastfeeding topic. Breastfeeding is just a natural way of nursing babies, it is not something that is disgusting. Breasts should not be always related to sex.

I would think it is a wonderful gift for the elder girls, if mommy is getting a new baby. So, while mommy is breastfeeding the newborn, the sister can play breastfeeding with this doll.

Is it really that disgusting with that toy? What is your view on this? You might want to hop over to Opposing Views to voice your comment on this question: “Is the breastfeeding doll an appropriate toy for girls?“. But I am also interested to hear your views on this here. Please leave a comment and let’s discuss?

This woman, 26 years old from North Dakota, faces 5 years in jail for drunken breastfeeding. Well, to be fair, not just drunken breastfeeding, but for child neglect.

The police officers went there, she was holding her 6 months old baby on the leg, upside down, while answering the door. Then she started shaking the baby in front of the police officers. The police asked her to stop doing that, and she then decided to breastfeed the baby in front of the policemen!

This woman is only 26 years old, that is only 8 years being ‘adult’. According to this video below (from Opposing Views), she has broke the law 27 times in that 8 years, including theft, forgery, contempt of court, and now child abuse.

Of course, the debate here in the site is that, whether it is right to prison her for drunken breastfeeding. If you have any opinion, you can comment over there (or here also can lah!).

For me, I think they have made a sensational topic out of this. The title focuses too much on breastfeeding. I think the police officers did not arrest her for drunken breastfeeding, but breastfeeding probably has provoked them further. It is the child abuse/neglect that they charged her on, I think.

Well, if they really jail people for drunken breastfeeding, I think most of us Chinese ladies, who undergone traditional Chinese confinement, would need to be jailed too. LOL! I still remember my first confinement. It was under a CL, and she gave me a bowl of herbal soup, topped with some liquor. I was drunk, and so did Ian. I really cannot drink, and had rashes. From then on, I told her to cook and let the alcohol evaporate before serving.

So, I think I would need to be jailed for that. And all the CLs in this country will need to be jailed too, coz they helped the ‘criminal’. LOL! And all Chinese mothers would need to be jailed too…

Seriously, 5 years is probably too long…