la leche

It is not a known fact around the unit that I work in that I have kids, let alone that I have three.

This afternoon, I was encouraging a mother, who had just delivered 3 days back, about her breastmilk. She was getting frustrated with all the pumping she does and the little volume she produces for her preterm baby. I had just remarked that I knew how difficult it is in the first couple of days because I had breastfed my kids too.

She stared at me in disbelief.

"You have kids?! You are such a little thing." And she was looking me over intently.

"Yes, I do. I have three in fact. And I breastfed each one of them."

She looked floored. "But you're still so young. You can't be a day over 25."

"Oh, you just made my day." I was beaming. "I am over 25. No doubt about that. You know what the secret is? I started out when I was 12."

And we both started laughing. The mother at the next bedside was looking at the two of us.

Mom number 1 says: "Can you believe it? She has three kids. If you can have three kids, then I sure can have breastmilk for my baby here."

I rest my case.

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Just so that we are still in the topic of breastmilk, I remember when I first started my fellowship in Canada in 2006.

It was July 4 when it was my first time ever to participate in rounds in North America. Each nurse at bedside gave us the scoop on how the baby did from the night before and currently. In doing so, there were many unfamiliar abbreviations and acronyms spilling from her mouth. Add to that the spiel from the respiratory therapist, the pharmacist and the dietician. I was quite disoriented...maybe it was also the jetlag.

Anyhow, I caught on eventually. Frequently, there would be report on rounds that EBM is not available. EBM is expressed breastmilk.

When I left the Philippines, I was still breastfeeding Nikki who was barely 14 months old at the time. I did not have the heart to completely disengage her especially at night. However, I was still getting heavy with breastmilk in my first few weeks in Toronto. Even heavier was the thought that Nikki was herself crying to sleep those nights. Sigh..

Many times I was tempted to say, "EBM? I have lots of EBM."

Now if only the concept of a milk bank wasn't so foreign here in the first world where they are abreast (no pun intended) of how precious breastmilk is, I wouldn't have wasted so much.