After spending 4 days and 3 nights in the hospital, I went back to my mother’s house for my confinement period. Previously, she took care of my eldest sister’s newborns so Clarisse is the third grandchild she’ll be taking care of. I’m so grateful she agreed to take care of us because the first month is an extremely busy and taxing time for families with a newborn. She has to cook for the family, household chores and apart from breastfeeding, she took care of everything else for the baby - bathing, changing diapers etc. It was a learning experience for me. I learnt the ABC’s of baby care by watching my mother.

We had worries about me lacking in breast milk production. My intention from the start was to fully breast feed Clarisse but she would cry after every breastfeeding session. My mother and I worried that I might not produce enough breast milk to satisfy her hunger so we supplemented formula after breastfeeding her. She would sleep soundly after a bottle of formula.

Many people say it is usual for babies to reject breast milk after being bottle fed for some time. In my case, Clarisse had no problem with being breastfed and bottlefed at the same time. Maybe NUK Latex Teat that I use helped to minimise the difference in sensation between a bottle teat and a real nipple. The shape of an NUK Latex Teat is made to closely resemble that of a mother’s nipple.

So for the first one and a half months, I fed Clarisse both breast milk and roughly 2 ounces of supplementary formula milk. I was always concerned not being able to produce enough breast milk for Clarisse during that period. My mother would boil raw papaya with pork soup for me to drink regularly. It’s an old Chinese recipe believed to increase a breastfeeding mother’s milk supply. Besides that, I drank plenty of water in order to replenish fluids loss during breast feeding. Ate a variety of nutritious foods to maintain the quality of breast milk. It’s a known fact that not only food and beverage would affect the milk supply but stress can negatively affect milk production.