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BF Flashmob/Nurse-in
January 10, 2012
Uncategorized flashmob, gurney plaza Leave a comment
(picture taken during “1-minute Simultaneous Breastfeeding” WBW2011 @ Straits Quay, Penang)
Penang breastfeeding mothers,
MMPS is organizing a BF flashmob (or nurse-in) at Gurney Plaza this Jan 15 (this sunday). The purpose of this flashmob is to increase the public awareness on breastfeeding.
BF flashmob starts at 12pm. We meet up at 11:45am, at main entrance (inside la, got air-con), the one facing sea. Then only we walk to the location (to be decided). Call Connie 0165533782 or email pgmmps@gmail.com if interested to join. Or come straight to Gurney Plaza and join us. 
Flashmob/nurse-in means go there, BF, then cabut (you can continue your shopping). That’s it! =)
See you.
State opens breastfeeding room at Komtar
December 2, 2011
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BREASTFEEDING mothers working in Komtar, Penang, can now nurse their children during working hours in a specially set up room for them.
The room, which cost RM3,000, is situated at the corner of the Information Department at the Chief Minister’s office on the 47th floor of Komtar.
Just beside a pantry that is equipped with a refrigerator, cupboards and a sink, the room has several sofas and a coffee table.
State Youth and Sports, Women, Family and Community Development chairman Lydia Ong Kok Fooi said that more than 80% of employees in Komtar were female and almost 30% of them had recently given birth.
“We are looking into setting up more of such rooms in the other departments as well as in other state buildings.
“The Penang Municipal Council is also in discussions to include a breastfeeding room as a requirement for the approval of building plans,” she told a press conference yesterday.
She added that the state had allocated RM50,000 to promote Penang as ‘A Breastfeeding Friendly State’ by holding workshops and talks for the public.
World Alliance for Breastfeeding Action (WABA) deputy director Julianna Lim Abdullah said that with such facilities, breastfeeding mothers need not express milk or feed their child in the toilet anymore.
“It does not cost much to set up a breastfeeding room. There is nothing fancy to it. It just needs a refrigerator,” she said, adding that the best part of life for the child is breastfeeding.
A mother in the Mother-to-Mother Peer Support group Sabrina Sunderraj said that the idea of breastfeeding will grow if there was community support.
Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng was present for the launch of the new breastfeeding room.
Did you ever wonder what’s in… Breastmilk and Formula Milk?
November 29, 2011
MMPS Dec Gathering + Kids Playgroup (Sunday)
November 24, 2011
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Date: 4 Dec 2011
Time: 3pm-4pm
Venue: Koala Kids Enrichment Centre @ YMCA 1st Floor.
(Map available at http://koalakidscenter.blogspot.com/2009/10/come-and-check-us-out-today.html)
A gathering for mothers/mothers-to-be/fathers/fathers-to-be/parents-in-law/friends/anyone who are interesting in breastfeeding. If you would like to learn more about breastfeeding, have questions/doubts about breastfeeding, come join us. FOC.
This is also a playgroup for the kids. Do bring your kids so that they can make friend with other kids.
Breastfeeding Success Story : Colicky Baby
November 24, 2011
My desire to breastfeed my very first baby came after learning that this is probably the most beautiful nature gift that i could give my dear baby. Not knowing much about breastfeeding, I went to a talk and was further encouraged by Connie Mooi reassuring me that there is no such thing as mum without supply. This is because my mum and aunts mostly tell me that they do not have milk and all the pains associated with trying to breastfeed.
On 29.1.11 just less than 2 hours after the arrival of my lovely daughter I gave her first direct feed. It’s was the most memorable moment of my life, the beauty of bonding between us. Then and hour later I almost lost my life when I collapsed into a state of shock and shiver and a temperature of 39.8 degrees.
It was with God’s blessing that I survived that ordeal however I had to be on drips and antibiotics plus medicine to ease my episiotomy pain. I could hardly sit up on my own and was very weak after a lot of blood loss during labour (practically bed ridden). However on confirmation that my condition does not affect me breastfeeding my baby, I endured the pain as the nurse held my baby to my breast for feeding.
On the third day I was told that my baby is dehydrated & there are blood in her nappy probably from the kidney from he dehydration. Hence they have to give her formula for top up as my supply has not come in yet which is worsen by my anemic situation. I had no choice but to give in. But I continued to let my baby suck and express after to keep stimulating my breast.
On that night itself my supply came in. However as my baby is still dehydrated i was told to supplement with formula which I did till we came home from hospital and my baby refuses to drink the formula.
So I was on an 2 hourly direct feeding routing and sometimes after an hour. As I am still very weak and being overseas without any help I could hardly sit up due to severe pain so I was about to give up breastfeeding. This is especially when i had to bath my baby, do other babies chores till my husnad come home from work. However my baby asthough she knows what is best for her only take breastmilk and rejects formula milk. So I persisted on breastfeeding.
Then our nightmare begun when her colic sets in at week 2 old and we had to carry her to sooth her pain almost 10-15 hours a day. Her bouts of crying after I feed her was so pitiful. I had altered my diet to be completely dairy and soy free so everyday I only take hot rice milk and plain bread made without dairy or soy during my confinement and only had plain meat and ginger and rice for meals no soy sauce! Dispict that, her condition did not improve.
So again I wanted to give up and I rung the Australian breastfeeding association and my pediatrician for advise. They were all very supportive of breastfeeding and kept encouraging me to be strong and breastfeed my baby.
It was then I realized that she was overfed and had lactose overload. So I put her on a 3 hourly feeding routing & did a 6 hourly x 2 days block feeding on single breast to reduce my supply and feeding her. This helped and settled her colic after that it was so easy for us to care for her from 9 weeks till 12 weeks old.
My nightmare returned again with painful bouts of sudden crying almost night when we return to MAlaysia for our holiday. During the day she would sleep for short naps and wake up with tummy pain and had about 4-5 runny poos with mucous a day at 3-5months old and there were few occasions with blood.
Having rung and seen the pediatrician, GP, lactation consultant, maternal nurses. I still couldn’t resolve this problem. Then I was pressured by my family to stop breastfeeding and just give her soy milk. So I tried drinking soy milk myself then breastfeed my baby and she has rashes all over her body.
I came back to Melbourne and sort more help and to make matter worst she had very bad eczema due to winter. She hardly gets any sleep and wakes up every hour at night which i had to feed her for comfort. Again family pressure builds up because my family and husband do not see the goodness of breastfeeding and reckons that it causes my baby to suffer and that i should just give her formula milk and gripe water (which is banned in Australia for its alcholic contents).
So I went on a salicylate elimination diet plus avoiding soy, dairy, citrus, berries & shellfish. I lost 5kgs that month & was 6kgs off my prepregnancy weight.
So tired & frustration I went to an allergist to test out what’s my baby’s real problem so I could give up breastfeeding and put her on Neonate. Then thank God again she isn’t allergic to any food. It is an in hereditary condition. Further to that I was advised breastmilk is the best for babies with allergies. This is because the antibodies & nutrients in it help strengthen their already weak immune system.
I went back to my GP for second opinion of which she said why give formula when breastmilk is God’s gift & is so healing in it’s natural form!
I had been breastfeeding my baby until now knowing & assured that there is nothing better than breastmilk to help reduce my babies allergies, provide her comfort when she is in pain, gives her assurance & relief when she is scared or lonely. Most of all when i hold her close to me she feels safe & comfortable which keeps her happy knowing mummy loves her and is giving her the very best gift she could possibly have.
It has been such a rough journey for me having to persist and stay strong when my family would not support my decision to continue with breastfeeding. But it is so rewarding when I see her smile as she cuddle me and pull my breast when she wants her feed :) which I believe feeding formula will not give me this type of opportunity. Best of all I know that in future her immune system will benefit from what I give her today through breastmilk.
From : Claudine Chan, Australia
© MMPS. All rights reserved. All images/text cannot be republished.
Breastfeeding Success Story : From 1oz to 4 oz
November 17, 2011
I was upset for the 1st baby because I am not success in breast feeding. My 1st son, Aqeel Ryan got jaundice that time and without enough knowledge about breast feeding also support from others especially my hubby, finally I gave him formula milk which I think the expensive milk is the best milk. Oh god! how can I think like that on that time!!! For the 2nd baby, Awra Zulaikha I was set my mind to breastfeed my baby in whatever conditions and situations. I was breast feeding my baby when she in week 2 after delivered. This is because my milk flow was slow and my baby still in learning to got my breast. Otherwise I only pump my breast & gave her using bottle feeding in 2 weeks. Since I was set my mind when I know I was pregnant I want to breast feed my baby. I read all about breast feed and all the knowledge I applied to my baby.
When I in confinement, my mother in law was taking care of us. She always told me when I come back to work please top up milk with formula milk. The reason because my milk will not enough to my baby. Again and again I set my mind my milk will enough and I ignore what she say to me. I keep on pumping even though my milk only got 1oz to 2 oz only. I always read all the website about breast feeding and when I got problems I will always refer to peer counselor in susuibu.com. Private message to PC almost every time I got confusing and problems every thing about EBM and BF.
I had upset with my milk on that time when I was pumping I only got 2oz for side by side. I have ignore the negative thinking because I will stress so when the first day I came to work, I was pumping on the way to my office in the morning and amazing happened to me I think the first time in my life I got 4oz. Wow!!! I am very happy and now I believe that my milk is enough to my baby. Now, my daughter turns 5 months old on 10th Aug 2011. I have exclusively breast feed her until now and will continue until she 2 years old. Even though I am only the one arrange everything about EBM & others but I always happy. I was join support group meeting in JB, I join all about BF events when I have time. Hopefully one day I will become peer counselor to help all mothers outside there in breast feeding.
Love & happy breast feeding!
From : Asmahliza Kamarolzaman, Malaysia
© MMPS. All rights reserved. All images/text cannot be republished.
Breastfeeding Success Story : Strong Determination Overcome Every Obstacle
November 17, 2011
I love breastfeed, especially when I direct feed my baby. I feel very happy and lucky that I been introduced to breastfeeding during when was pregnant my first baby. Firstly it was my doctor who suggested me to read more information on breastfeeding. He mentioned nowadays a lot of working woman not really anticipant to breastfeed their kids due to tedious job and found it was very time consuming to do it too. I also would like to thank my friends for introduce breastfeed information and sharing on her experience to breastfeed exclusively for both of her kids.
Before I delivered, I told my husband that I want to breastfeed my baby. He is very supportive and agreed with my thought! First delivery end up with c-sec nearly turn off me to breastfeed my baby girl – Kyelyn, as I thought I surely unable to feed my girl due to the pain from the wound. My baby girl was feed with formula for few days at hospital as I found I didn’t have milk even let her suck for few days.
After discharged, I try to feed my baby girl. She keep on crying as she do not find the correct way on how to suck my nipple, end up my Mother in law feeding her with formula as she cannot afford to see her grandchild suffering from hunger. I start to feel very stressful but I told my husband that I must keep on trying to let my baby girl latch on. With strong determination, my baby girl able to latch on after 4 days I keep on direct feed her and thank god that I can just stop feeding her with formula.
I didn’t purchase any breast milk and my breast start to get blocked after my milk flow is coming. I got to use hot towel and hand to express but I totally do not know the correct way to do it. End up I only able to express 1oz of milk. I quickly called my husband to get a pump for me. After 1 week I delivery, I start to express and feeding my baby girl exclusively. Whenever she sleep longer time, I will quickly pump out all the milk and stored. I told myself no matter what I must fully breastfeed my baby girl at least 1 year. I managed to store up to 40 bottles of EBM when I back to work at office.
My Mother in law at first keep on asking me why I insisted to breastfeed my baby whereby formula is convenience and also full of nutrient for baby, I then showing her all the facts from breastfeeding book. She also mentioned that she heard that only giving breast milk is not sufficient for baby and suggest to top up with some formula. Luckily my husband and I insisted to fully breastfeed and we proving that we will able to do it no matter what. End up my Mother In law agreed and she become a breastfeed supporter as well after seeing the changes and development from my baby girl. She even ask me do to live breastfeeding demo to my Sister In law and cousin sister when they come visit me during confinement.
I manage to feed my baby girl for 14 months till my girl ok to wean it by herself. I told myself that if I got a second child, I definitely want to feed longer period. Throughout the feeding process, I feel the happiest moment is the bonding whenever I direct feed my girl, it is the precious moment holding them and you feel you are very close with them. I did drink Milk Tea and Fenugreek to increase my milk whenever I found my supply is dropping. Thankful that my working place have a lot of breastfeed mother and we always having information exchange and sharing on breastfeeding and baby topics. Even I need to travel 120KM daily to work, I enjoy breastfeed and taking care my baby girl all by myself at night as I will wake up to feed my baby girl at night whenever she need it.
Now I having my second baby –baby boy – Kyson, this round I carry the breastfeeding well as I learn and improved from my first experience. My boy latch me easily before I was discharged and addicted to direct feed till my Mother in law having hard time to feed him when I was away to work. Before I go to work, I will feed my son and first thing I reach home, I will feed him too. I never bottled feed my two babies before, all the way I only perform direct feed. This round I produce more milk compared with first baby, I expressed it and give EBM to my girl whom already 2 years plus. She still enjoying drinking it very much. This round I even got to purchase a separate freezer just to store up my 160 bottles when I back to work. I am more than happy and proud that I can still provide EBM to my girl as I feel guilty that I didn’t feed her longer period.
I also happy to motivate and share all my experience with all the expected mother who having interest and want to breastfeed. I offer them to call me 24/7 if they facing any issue or need any help or motivation in order to continue their breastfeed journey. I always told my friend that Human milk for Human baby, and my principle is must try the very best to breastfeed my baby at least 1 year. My son is 10 months now, I wish I can go for at least 2 years this round. By seeing the baby healthy life, smarter development, no matter how tired I am even travelling 120km per day didn’t stop me for continue breastfeed my kids! Please not give yourself any excuses that breastfeed is time consuming, tiring and suffering. Once you having strong determination, you will find it is a happy, precious memorable bonding moment and best gift that you had provided to your baby..
From : Agnes Loh Hooi Hwa, Malaysia
© MMPS. All rights reserved. All images/text cannot be republished.
Travelling And Expressing
November 14, 2011
Expressing while travelling is very much possible and I would like to share tips which I have learnt from my experience as well as from other mothers who have traveled extensively locally as well as abroad. Fear not, with a little guidance and useful tips, you will eventually find out your own way to go about doing it.
1. May out your journey
It would be useful to take some time to write down your itinerary of your trip from the time you leave home, which airport, how long your waiting time, the place, the mode of traveling from one meeting to another, meeting place, accommodation type, mode of transport and the duration. Your would have an idea how often you will need to express and this will give you an idea when and how to store you EBM.
2. Preparation
What do you need? This will depend on the no. of days you will be away, your mode of traveling, your accommodation and your storage area. From here you can decide whether it would be worthwhile to express and bring back vs ‘pump and dump’ and yet can still come back and continue to breastfeed. If you decide it’s possible to bring your milk back, then you need to calculate the rough estimate the amount of EBM for further planning. Email the hotel, airline or meeting area to find out where you can pump. You could ask the meeting secretariat to arrange a place for you to pump. Just ask!
3. Equipment
- Breast pump – (both manual and battery/motor operated. Manual pump is important for places with no electrical outlet or when you are pumping on the go. Battery/motor operated can be heavy and cumbersome but quite useful).
- Breast milk storage bags, containers – it would be useful to get those presterilised plastic bags.
- Cooler bags and/or good quality cooler box – suggest to bring along a small cooler box for daily use and the large cooler box (depending on the quantity of EBM you will be bringing back) for storage in the hotel freezer room as well as for transporting back.
- Lots of ice bricks/ice packs.
- Thick towels or newspaper
- Misc – rubber bands, market pen for labeling name, date and time.
4. Sterilizing breast pumps
- Sterilizing tablets – the most convenient way and you can sterilize the pumps and bottles in the small cooler box.
- Boiling them in a big electric kettle.
- Antibacterial wipes – to use when on the go.
- Hotel’s sterilizer – some hotel may provide so ask and you may not be disappointed.
5. Expressing on board
Express in the cabin toilet when everyone is having their meal thus you will have at least 30 mins of peace. Inform the cabin crew what you will be doing and ask them to keep the meal for you to have it later. They could also help to store the EBM in their fridge in the mean time.
6. Keeping it frozen in the hotel freezer
Those expressed during the day can be kept in the room fridge or in your smaller cooler box with ice packs and later transferred it in the hotel freezer at the end of the day.
In my experience, the hotel will ask you to call room service dept and they will keep it in the cold room in the bakery section. However, I usually request to speak to the in charge and ask them for permission to see the cold room where my EBM will be stored. I also will insist that I bring down the EBM and store it in the freezer room myself every night. I also gave very specific instruction on when I would like it back. I have had bad experience due to poor communication with the hotel staff and they sent the frozen milk to me on the morning of my departure.
I usually keep my breast milk in the cooler box inside the cold room if space permit. Packing on the day of departure is best done in the cold room or outside of it to ensure that the frozen EBM will be kept frozen till we reached home.
7. Packing the frozen milk
The ice packs should be frozen and it should be lined all around the cooler box, at the bottom and finally at the top before closing. The frozen EBM should be individually wrapped with a thick paper and again reqrapped with a thick towel. You can also line the ice packs with thicker towel and also add more ice into the cooler box on top of the EBM before closing. All this will add bulk but it’s the best way to keep it frozen throughout the journey. Don’t keep chilled milk with frozen milk as it will thaw the frozen EBM quicker.
Usually, if it is packed well, you can keep it frozen for at least 6 hours from fridge door to fridge door. After that, there is no guarantee and some will start to thaw. So it is worthwhile to do a bit of homework and decide if you want to bring it back frozen or chilled.
8. Transporting EBM back home
If you are planning to transport frozen EBM, then you must make sure the last batch needs to be well-frozen at least 12 hours before departure. Those expressed on the day of departure should be carried as chilled.
If you are traveling by flight, you would need to confirm whether you can carry your milk on board. With their recent ruling of not more than 100mls per pack, some airlines are very strict ie SIA including their airports. It would be wiseto call up and get written confirmation that they allow you to do that in preparatory phase. On an earlier trip from Singapore, they allowed me to carry the frozen milk (about 100 ozs) as a hand luggage on board but on another similar trip, they said no so I chose to pump and dump.
The alternative would be to pack it well and check it in. You could pack them in those Styrofoam boxes. It would be cumbersome to bring along so in a foreign place, get the hotel to source them for you but be ready to pay the expenses.
9. Custom / security issues
Check out this webpage for more info if you are traveling to and from US. The rule does not apply for all countries and each airport and country will have their own rules so do a check first or you will be disappointed.
Asian countries like China, Vietnam, Laos, Thailand, Malaysia – will likely allow you to bring the frozen milk on board as it will not show up as liquid when it passes through the xray but it would be helpful if you let them know earlier and say that it’s for “medical purposes”.
Singapore – very difficult recently. Earlier I was able to bring nthe frozen milk on board but then recently, they just refused to allow any fluid (frozen or otherwise) be carried on board if not packed in the 100 mls bottle rule. I pump and dump for that trip.
Australia and NZ – very strict rules about bringing in unprocessed food so better to pump and dump when entering the country but it shouldn’t be a problem to bring it out since they are so breastfeeding friendly. you just need to check on the airline you are traveling on. If via SIA, then they could pose some difficulty again.
10. Travelling by car
Fill up a large coleman box full of ice (can be bought at convenient store) and place the EBM in the middle of the ice cubes after wrapping with paper and towel. It should be able to be kept well frozen from fridge door to fridge door. Alternatively, you could transport it chilled.
* Shared by a MMPS member during MMPS gathering.
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