16th Ramadhan : I Make Milk

Alhamdulillah, we are already halfway through ramadhan. How is your amalan so far? 

Today, I would like to share about my breastfeeding experienced. I love to talk about breastfeeding. When I was first delivering my eldest son, my mom told me she never breastfed me and all of my siblings when we were babies. She said she couldn't provide enough milk for us, and that she always has inverted nipple which is make it difficult to feed us. So you see, I've come from environment that is not aware about the importance of breastfeeding, the benefits of it, the beauty of doing it. But Alhamdulillah, my husband has been always supported me in nursing our babies.

Few-days old Daniel in KPJ Breastfeeding/Pumping room
with abah peneman setia mama

I have breastfeed two of my babies exclusively until they were 6 months old as recommended by WHO and UNICEF. Evidence has shown that exclusive breastfeeding for 6 months is the optimal way of feeding babies. And then after that, babies should receive complimentary food with continued breastfeeding up to 2 years old. Daniel is already 2 years old, I managed to breastfeed him till he was 1 years old, and then Darrel came along, I've experienced tandem nursing for a few days with them both, after that Daniel preferred bottle-feeding, but still alhamdulillah, 1 year is a long way. Now, Darrel Miyzad is still breasfeeding and will continue insyaAllah till another year.

So, why breastfeed? Why choose to? Honestly, at first, I do not know. It just came to my mind that I should breastfeed my baby since it is one of the sunnah Rasulullah s.a.w. When first I got Daniel, I just had few knowledge about it. Knowledge is a must for you to breastfeed your child. Alhamdulillah, I delivered them at KPJ Shah Alam, one of Baby-and-Breastfeeding Friendly hospital. A day before I delivered Daniel, the nurses taught me on how to start breastfeed, the right positions, how do you stimulate your breast to make milk. Alhamdulillah, alhamdulillah, seperti ditakdirkan, Allah sent me knowledge, awareness about breastfeeding through them.

Eventhough Daniel only managed to fully breastfeed till he's 1, but I continued to provide him breastmilk in many different ways such as I made breastmilk-icecream for him, if he wanted to eat his cereal, I would give him cereal+breastmilk instead of full-fat milk, he had his scramble eggs with breastmilk in it (need to slow cook it as you don't want to loose all the nutrients in breastmilk), only that he did not want directfeed anymore ever since his brother came into the family. All of these still happens till now.

So as time goes by, now, alhamdulillah, I know why I choose to breastfeed my babies. In life, every creation has their own purpose. We have been created by Allah to worship Him, our hands are created to hold, feet to walk, eyes to see, nose to smell, ears to hear, and masyaAllah, I believe Allah jadikan kita-kita ini (read as wanita-wanita ini) lekuk di badan cukup cantik, very figure-shaped with beautiful breasts, and we have been blessed with breasts to produce milk to our children. And that is the reason why I choose to breastfeed my children because I know the purpose Allah creates it in the first place and will continue doing it to my other children insyaAllah.

InsyaAllah, in the future, I will write and share more about how to increase breastmilk, how I can still provide breastmilk to my kids when I go to work, I bet most of it you just can google it anyway, but I still want to share how do I manage it.

Please, I hope my entry will not bring any other mothers down if you decide not to breastfeed your kids. I'm not judging other mothers. I personally think that whether or not to breastfeed is an individual decision. And, ultimately, it is each mother's right to decide what is best for her and her baby.



I make milk and proud of it,
Mama Anis.

mummy tummy one two thee!