One of the best decisions Michael and I made as parents is to breastfeed our children. We believe that breastfeeding is the most natural, most nutritious way to feed our child. So we researched, shopped and geared up to make our breastfeeding journey easier. Of course as parents, we know that even if we think we are prepared and have done our homework, it won’t be a guarantee that it will be easy. In my case, it was not easy at first – heck it was very, very, very difficult – but I was glad I did not give up. I breastfed Mia until she was 2.5 years old, and we only had to stop because I was having contractions when I was pregnant with Mika. Now with the little one, I have exclusively breastfed her until she was ready for solids.
Because I’ve been breastfeeding since 2012 – 4 years already! – I’ve had the chance to research, scout, and try different items related to breastfeeding. I’ve bought breast pumps, nursing pillows, nursing bra, cover, storage bottles and milk bags, galactagogues, breast creams, pads – you’d be surprised how much breastfeeding-related products are available in the market! Here are some of the items which I can recommend to moms who are planning to breastfeed:
Breast Pump
One of the most expensive breastfeeding product that we’ve invested in is an electric double breast pump from Medela. Although the Freestyle Double Electric pump cost us a few thousand pesos, I believed that it has returned our investment a hundred fold. I also bought a manual pump for back up, just in case the electric one failed or low in battery charge. Although moms can opt to manually express milk since this is the cheapest but most effective way to express, I found it very time consuming when I was still working (in a regular office) as I had to express more than 30 minutes during my scheduled milk breaks. With the pump, the time to express was cut in half as it can express at both breasts at the same time.
Now that I work from home, I do not need to express milk regularly and there was no pressure to build a milk stash since I can just let Mika latch whenever she wants to. I still use the pump though to keep my supply up, I express whenever Mika misses a feeding schedule or I feel that my breasts are full.
A related post on this breast pump can be found here.
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