Jeng Jeng Jeng!!! Am proud to announce that I am a certified breastfeeding peer counselor! This is my dream come true. Well, partially. My initial dream was to be a certified lactation counselor (LC), which would require longer journey (3years I guess) and lotsa lotsa reading and courses to attend.
It was Gina Yong, my breastfeeding guru, who organized this for us - the members from The Breastfeeding Advocates Network in Facebook. The respond was good but the maximum participant allowed was only 20pax.
Gina's friend has managed to book a multipurpose hall from Ken 1 Condominium as the training venue for us. It was just nice for all us, 7 trainers + 20 mommies + a few babies. YES babies were there too throughout the training. Some were as young as 1month old :) See, mommy was determined to take part on this training even after confinement.
This course was conducted by 7 trainers. Some of them are pediatrician, GP, nurse :D Awesome! We took this opportunity to ask lotsa questions with regards to baby's health vs breastfeeding. You know, there are many BF myths out there right. They are seriously very very helpful and friendly.
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| Group study and discussion time |
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| yeah...mooing during break time! |
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| Many moo-mama doing it too :D |
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| Demo on various latching position |
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| The making of..... |
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| Yes. A booby! See the ugly sewing effect? Simple sewing also failed big time! |
And here's the boobies gathering! Some colored it with a marker pen. Kinda infected boobies alike huh? Haha. It is meant for us to use as a demo unit, eg showing mommy how does a good latching looks like. And I don't mean myself to 'latch' on my demo unit ok. Use hand lah to mimic baby's lacth on position.
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| Proud owners of the their 3rd boob :P |
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| Lunch and tea break was provided. The food was so yummy! Whacked everything kao kao. |
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| YAY! Receiving my certificate!! |
After the certificate has been given out to everyone, we gathered in a circle and each of us will hold this string which was connected to each other. It symbolized togetherness, staying strong with challenges and maintain the relationship. Each of us was given a chance to provide feedback on this training course. It was indeed a very emotional moment for everyone. I sobbed +_+
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| Here we are! The happy breast feeding peer counselors! |
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I have gained a lot of knowledge from this course and also made new friends. We can never stop learning though.
3months ago, I was able to help my very close friend (we knew each other since Primary 1) to breastfeed her first child. Most importantly, she trusted me and never gave up despite to a few time of failures. I sincerely hope that I can render my help to mommies out there, especially first time mother, who are facing problem on breastfeeding. Please join
The Breastfeeding Advocates Network (TBAN) in Facebook for breastfeeding support. There are plenty of breastfeeding peer counselors there to help out those in need, inclusive myself. This page was set up by Gina Yong, my breastfeeding guru :) There are more than 4k of members there, everyday with lotsa new posts from mothers seeking help/info about breastfeeding.
So, what can a bf peer counselor do? Can do home visit (free of charge of course), some leave their contact no to the midwife in the hospital so that mom who just gave birth can contact them for help if needed. For the time being, I'm assisting mothers from TBAN through FB and some will private message me. But I need to highlight that a breastfeeding counselor cannot do magic ya. No matter how much we can advise you, at the end of the day, it is still up to the mother's own will to do it and to make it a success. Some will think that whatever we say is a SURE can increase supply, SURE can overcome plugged duct, SURE can overcome problems. Sigh. Even David Copperfield also cannot do such magic ler. Every individual is different. Every baby is different. Some respond well to Fenugreek, 1 of the BM booster supplement to increase supply, while some mommies see no result with it. You just gotto do the trial and error on those few milk booster remedies, to identify which 1 works well on you.
Sometimes, some mommy who prefers beauty sleep, easy and fast work, and thought that breastfeeding is as simple as A B C, 1 2 3. Yes, I have been blessed with a simple and easy breastfeeding journey. I thank God for this. But you still need to put in some effort to do it right. I have come across a mother who asked me hundreds of questions on how to increase her BM supply, how to pump, what pump to use...you know, those 101 questions lah. In the end, she told me "waa need so much time to pump ka, I cannot do it lah. It's ok lah. I will try it for my next child" =_= Sigh. Need I say more? I did my part to help you. But you do not want to help yourself, not even 1 step to TRY. So that's the end of it lah.
Do not hesitate to drop me a line if you need help or somebody you know who needs guidance on breastfeeding. Saya sedia membantu! :D I'm ready to help!
