Breastfeeding Survival 101 Part 1

Even prior to my giving birth, I’ve always told myself that I WILL BREASTFEED MY BABY.  I used to wonder why some moms don’t, when the benefits of breastfeeding are practically staring every mom in the face–from TV commercials to print ads to NGO’s promoting breastfeeding to doctors…everyone is raving about the pros of breastfeeding (the most important ones for me include raising my child’s IQ and the tipid factor).  Two of the most common reasons I hear from moms who don’t breastfeed include “Wala kasi akong gatas” or “Inverted kasi ang nipples ko.”  When I heard these reasons when I was young, I used to believe them—that indeed, there were women who don’t or can’t produce sufficient milk.  But when I started listening to breastfeeding advocates and reading about breastfeeding, I learned that these reasons were bull.  I learned that a woman’s breast follows the Law of Supply and Demand: the more your baby consumes, the more your breast will produce milk.  So I always wondered what was REALLY keeping women from breastfeeding their babies, but I still swore to myself that I will breastfeed my baby.

And then came Raviv.

When Fetus Ladaga Became Infant Ladaga Part 3

continued from When Fetus Ladaga Became Infant Ladaga Part 2 (which is a continuation of When Fetus Ladaga Became Infant Ladaga Part 1)

….By the way, I was able to look at the clock when the baby was born, and even uttered, “12:10 am lumabas si baby.”

I was eagerly awaiting to see my baby, but I admit not as much as I thought I would.  I was happy to hear his deep, loud cry, because I read that such cry is excellent and would increase his APGAR score.  While some nurses/midwives were cleaning up my baby, some were also cleaning me up.  I could feel the filth of my va-jayjay, because when baby came out it’s like a year’s worth of clotted menstruation came out of me too.   When I (va-jayjay) was clean and sewed up, I was moved to another clean bed (bless you Asian Hospital!), and then the baby was presented to me.  While the nurse (? or was it the doctor?) was walking towards me with my baby wrapped in a blanket, my thoughts were running…I remember people telling me that upon laying their eyes on their newborn, they felt that every pain and every sacrifice were worth the tiny baby they see…as Alona (our helper) said:  Nawala lahat ng pagod at hirap ko.  So I was expecting this magical thing to happen,