Breastfeeding class / 餵母乳課程

Today we went to a breastfeeding class. Our midwife suggested us to take three classes, breastfeeding class, childbirth class, and infant CPR class. Since we don’t have any experience we were so glad our hospital provides these classes.  They are pretty helpful.

When we went to the class, I were surprised all the mommies came to the class with their husbands. None of them didn’t go without their husbands. All the husbands were so supportive. I was making fun of Eddie before the class. I said you probably will see many breasts. Lol… of course i’m just kidding!

At the beginning of the class, the teacher wanted us introduce ourselves and share any of our questions about breastfeeding. I told them my only concern is I’m skinny. I’m afraid I won’t have enough milk for my baby. The teacher said it is not necessary to be big. Some of the skinniest mommies on the other hand have more milk. It really depends. Some of the supplements and the correct breastfeeding techniques definitely might be helpful. However, there are so many details about breastfeeding. Here are the important things I learned from the class…

• After delivery, have skin-to-skin touch.  It helps increase the breast milk.
• It’s better to breast feed the baby for at least 6 weeks.
• Try putting the nipple into baby’s upper mouth. Let the baby suck the whole areola area as much as possible.
• Better to feed the baby every 3 hours even if the baby isn’t hungry. It isn’t just to help the baby but also avoid having lumpy breasts.
• After breastfeeding, put some ice on the breasts to reduce pain
• The first few days, baby only needs a small amount of milk, like the size of a marble. They don’t need a lot of milk. So, don’t worry if you don’t have enough milk the first few days.
• Don’t introduce formula milk too early. This is usually the reason babies might have pooping problems or really bad odor poop.   If they are introduced to formula milk too early these might happen.. The poop from breastfeeding should be light yellow color which shouldn’t be stinky.

One thing we have for breastfeeding is an electric breast pumping machine. All the popular machines are not cheap. So luckily we can use our insurance to get it for free. Also, I’m glad my friend shared her experience with me because I know nothing about these machines. She used  a couple of machines before. So, she knew which one is better. I didn’t want to hurt myself. I heard some mommies have bad experiences basically by pumping too hard. The milk pumped with blood. It was like strawberry milk. Sounds really painful 😐

今天我們去了上了一堂餵母乳的課程，我們的助產士推薦我們去上三堂課: 餵母乳的課、生產的課、跟幼兒心肺復甦術，還好我們的醫院有提供這樣的課程，讓我們這樣沒有經驗的新手爸媽有機會上課學習，對我們的幫助真的很大。

我們去上課的時候，我很驚訝每個新手媽咪都有先生陪伴來上課，沒有任何一個媽咪沒有先生來的，每個先生都太貼心了。上課前我還開Eddie玩笑說，你可能會在課堂上看到很多胸部，哈哈…當然只是個玩笑話，怎麼可能嘛!!

一開始上課老師就要我們自我介紹，順便也提出你對餵母乳有的顧慮，輪到我的時候我就說，我唯一的顧慮就是因為我有一點瘦，意指就是沒有大胸部 XD! 我怕我無法提供足夠的母乳給我女兒，老師回應說這不太一定，她有遇過很多比較纖細的女生反而比其他的媽媽有更多的母乳，所以這有一點因人而異，一些維他命跟正確的餵母乳習慣肯定會有所幫助的。餵母乳的細節有很多，這是幾個我從課堂上學到的重點…

• 生產後寶寶最好馬上跟媽媽肌膚相親，這會幫助媽媽母性的反應增加母乳
• 餵母乳的時間最好持續6個禮拜
• 餵母乳時，正確的角度應該是讓乳頭接觸到寶寶嘴巴裡面上方，讓寶寶的嘴巴盡可能的含住整個乳暈的地方
• 最好每3個小時就餵一次母乳，就算寶寶不餓，這不但是讓寶寶養成習慣，同時也減輕讓媽媽的母乳有脹痛的機會
• 餵完母乳後可以用一些冰塊冰敷
• 寶寶出生後的幾天，他們所需要的母乳就像一顆小彈珠一樣，所以如果沒有很多的母乳也不要擔心
• 不要讓寶寶太早就喝配方奶，寶寶之所以會有便秘或是臭便便的問題，就是因為配方奶的關係，餵母乳的寶寶，他們的便便應該是淡黃色，不會太臭的味道

餵母奶必要準備的東西就是電子吸奶器，市面上比較受歡迎的機器都不便宜，還好保險可以免費申請，剛好也很幸運的接收到我朋友的經驗，因為我對這些一竅不通，她剛好都用過幾個知名的機器，所以知道哪一台比較好，可以不要弄痛我當然最好，我聽說一些媽媽可怕的經驗，像是吸奶太猛烈，吸出血來，整個母奶就像草莓牛奶一樣，聽起來就好痛喔 😐