Grace and Wen

Did you know that a private lactation consultant charges about $150 for a home visit that will maybe take 1 or 2 hours at the most? That’s $150 I was considering paying when I suffered from nipple infection after being a little too enthusiastic about increasing my milk supply. The consultant herself was trying to discourage me from making the appointment and instead suggested that I attend their free mommy gathering at her place.

Or is it?

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Pregnancy was a breeze compared to the breastfeeding saga. Not even the swollen cankles and gestational diabetes caused me as much grief as trying to feed my baby with breast milk (BM).

In Singapore, doctors are not supposed to distribute formula milk (FM) samples for newborns and there are many support groups for breastfeeding. As a result, the nurses would usually rather hold off feeding a newborn any formula unless medically required. In my case, Cayden needed to be fed FM because of my gestational diabetes condition. I must say that it helped give me some peace of mind when I couldn’t get my milk production up to speed because I knew he was getting his nutrients elsewhere. The nurses were very encouraging of breastfeeding and there was always a lactation consultant nearby if I needed help. But it got a little extreme when on the last day of hospitalization, I asked the nurse for a few FM samples so that my baby could try different formulas (they say baby reacts differently to different formulas) and the nurse gave it to me grudgingly while saying these FM are better fed to dogs. I kid you not.

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