I wasn't able to share this experience after I gave birth until Mommy Jazz of SmartParenting chatted with me and asked me about "How breastfeeding helps in losing weight" At the same time, I want to share to all mothers out there the joy of feeding your babies with your own milk.
I attended seminars wherein I have learned that breast milk is so essential to baby's health. Before giving birth, my husband bought me an Avent Philips Manual Pump because we both agreed that I will breastfeed my baby as long as I could because I was breastfed by my mom for only two days when I was a baby.
In the hospital, I even hired two lactation consultants to teach me how to breastfeed my baby properly, but then, it was really hard for me and my baby to feed him directly from my breasts. So, I just expressed my milk which for me is better because I felt that I was able to get more milk that way. On his first week, he drank 2oz of milk, but I was able to pump 4oz of milk, so I had extra milk to reserve. I was blessed with a lot of milk, not needing to take any supplement to increase my milk supply but I still tried taking "Malunggay Capsule" thinking it might help more to increase my milk production. I was able to express 9-11 oz of milk every 4hours. NO wonder, from 3.2 kg, my son became 5kgs 4 weeks after.
However, on his fourth month, he keeps on waking every hour at night, since breast milk is easily digested unlike formula milk. I got very very thin, my weight dropped to 49kgs. But still, I wanted to breastfeed my son for at least 6 months. On the 7th month, I slowly stopped breastfeeding him because I have lost a lot of weight, I was nearly underweight.
How Did I Stop Breastfeeding
From every 2hours of expressing milk, I made it every 4hours since I already have stocks. When you open our fridge, yeah, it's overflowing with milk that I almost lack containers. Then, on the seventh month, when I was about to stop expressing milk, I started expressing every 6hours, then after a week, I made it every 8 hours, then after a week again I made it every 12hours, and on the last week I made it once a day only, until I have totally stopped expressing milk. No breast pain, no milk leaking, no discomfort.
On Weight Loss
I have attended a seminar when I was pregnant wherein Dr. Anthony Calibo of St. Lukes Medical Hospital said that when you breastfeed your baby, you will go back to your pre-pregnancy weight. Well, he was perfectly right! I was 57kgs when I got pregnant. 70kgs was my last pregnancy weight. Just after a month of breastfeeding, my weight dropped to 54kgs that my Ob-gyne was shocked seeing me and was happy at the same time saying that I am a real testimony of "Weight loss benefits of breastfeeding." I lost more and more that I dropped to 49kgs, my thinnest ever, since my child is also big plus the sleeplessness whenever he wakes up at night. My nephew's onesies that he wore when he was 4-5 months old was worn by my son when he was just 1-2 months old, that's how big my son was. I got back to my normal weight which is 52kgs when I started working again, when my son was already 13 months old.
On Maintaining My Weight
I am not thin, but I am not fat...just the normal me, my normal weight even before I got married. Now that my son is already 23 months old, I am able to maintain my 52kgs weight. How do I do that? Just by carrying my 14.3kgs son and running after him, yeah, it really is a great exercise for me.
I encouraged my friends to breastfeed their babies. I had two friends who gave birth in this private hospital and I was sad to hear that the hospital is not breastfeeding advocate. How did I say that? They were allowed to bottle-feed their newborn babies with formula milk inside the hospital. When I was in PGH, when I was having a hard time breastfeeding my son, he was cup-fed, drinking my milk still. I was highly encouraged by my Ob-Gyn to breastfeed my son for at least 1 year.
Benefits of Breast Milk to my Son
I totally stopped breastfeeding my son at the end of August 2011.He's never had even just a minor cold when he was being fed with my milk. On his 9th month, when he was already taking formula milk, that's when he started to have asthma, and tonsillitis. On his 10th month, he's had colds every 2 weeks. Then on his 11th month, skin asthma manifested. Yeah, right after stopping giving him my breast milk, he's become prone to sickness.
And me? I started having infections, my white blood cells count were always elevated. The doctor said, it was because my immune system got weaker.
So I really believe that breast milk is really best for babies.
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