This is gonna be a mighty long entry… please bear with me yeah… this is especially for yazid’s mummy. Hope this helps.

I originally wrote this for Vivian, a proprietor who turned a friend as a favour and also as a story for her blog (though last I checked it’s not published yet) and who knows maybe one day it can be published in a parenting magazine if it’s any good that is hahahahaha.

“I am writing this to share my experiences as a full-time working and breastfeeding first-time mommy to a 4-month-old baby girl, Ayra Hanna. I have always been a high-flyer type, not wanting to settle down in a meager job with a measly pay. I have my own ambitions and my own set targets on where I want to be career-wise and also in my personal life. That said, it totally doesn’t mean that I put my family aside to chase my personal dreams.

I totally adore my very understanding and accommodating husband and also the little girl who is definitely the highlight of our lives. Given the chance I would love to be able to work from home and take care of our little girl full time. Circumstances have not allowed me to do that just yet. Family comes first but I just need the financial freedom to provide our baby with the best things in the world.

After one year of marriage, we found out we were pregnant. Since before my Ayra was born, I have always known I wanted to breastfeed her, preferable exclusively. It is easy for someone to say it before actually doing it, and since it is only my first time I didn’t really know what to expect. I have a Medela Mini Electric pump ready, and I also prepared a cooler bag, ice packs and ice sheets, storage bottles, and all other necessities I deem needed to get this going through chats with friends who has done this before.

Thank God I have everything prepared before her arrival as 5 days into her life; my baby girl was admitted to hospital for jaundice for 4 days. I had to start pumping right away to send her milk supply to the hospital. Initially it was hard to get anything out at all but with practice, it got easier. She was only drinking 2 ounce per feeding then. Since then I started to pump at night and whenever she didn’t finish off the milk from my breasts after each feed to keep stock.

After I came back to work, my maid took care of Ayra. Only a week later, the job requires me to go to outstation to Taiwan for an entire week for training. Though sad at the thought of leaving behind my 2-month-old Ayra, I had to do it. I carefully labeled the milk I have kept in the freezer, but time and storage space did not allow me to keep a whole week’s stock. What I have is only enough to feed her during the day and we had to supplement her with formula at night as by now she drinks 4 ounces per feeding. Though this breaks my heart, I accepted it as not my choice, but it’s just what had to be done as I can’t starve Ayra just to ensure she gets fully breastfed. Determined to not let my milk supply diminish, I brought the pump with me all the way. I even bought a small ice box, storage bags and extra ice sheets for transporting my milk back with me.

To pump in the office every 3 hours is hard enough, many times when the meeting room (my usual pumping area) is in use; I had to pump in the car or even in the toilet! But to pump while on a job assignment overseas is a whole new story altogether. I had to carry my cooler bag and pump accessories with me everywhere to ensure I could pump whenever time permits me to. I couldn’t make every 3 hours but I still tried to keep it at least every 5 hours. And I still woke up every 3 hours in the night to pump even though there is no baby. I am determined to make this work and to ensure I still had milk for her when I return. As milk can only last in the refrigerator for 3 to 5 days unfrozen, I kept my milk frozen. In total for the week, I had almost 20 bags of 6 ounces each of frozen milk to transport home!

Transporting the milk home is another story. I had to ensure the milk stayed frozen, so the day I was due to fly home, I bought ice cubes and dumped them in the ice box together with my milk and the ice sheets and had to fight with the airlines officials and customs at the airport (with language barrier mind you) to allow me to bring my milk on board. The new ruling of no liquid on board is truly hard as they only allowed milk IF there is a baby with you. After pleading with them to NOT check in my milk as they would definitely defrost and spoil, they finally allowed me to bring them on board and I got the stewardess to help me keep the milk in the plane’s freezer. My milk reached Ayra safe and sound and frozen and that made me very very happy indeed.

My milk supply decreased dramatically after I got home and got me very sad. I researched and found that it is a common problem after some time of being away from baby and of using the pump alone without the baby sucking as the pump is not as efficient as a baby to stimulate milk production. Especially since the pump I am using is not a hospital grade one. I did everything I could to bring my supply up to par, I took leave to be with Ayra exclusively and fed her all day, and I took supplements and even bought and drank the Milkmaid Tea which really helps!

Sadly, just after my milk supply is back, a month later I had to go to China for 5 days. I made it once and I was again determined to do it again, so I repeated the whole process. It is much harder this time as there is no direct flight to my destination and I had to transit. During the whole almost 18 hours of journey, I had no choice but to pump and throw away my milk as there is no way to keep it chilled. That makes me sad as the milk is so precious to me! Another obstacle would be that the hotel room this time is much smaller and it comes only with a mini bar instead of a refrigerator. That means freezing the milk is out of the question and I had to make do with keeping them chilled.

Returning home this time, I had no problems carrying the milk on board but as the flight is with a budget airlines, the plane doesn’t have a freezer! Thank god for the ice cubes and ice sheet, I managed to keep the milk chilled for a total of about 9 hours. The milk was the first thing I attended to when I got home! Sadly I had to dispose of the first 2 day’s stock as the milk had changed colour. And again, I had to overcome the obstacle of decreasing milk supply.

Now, I am still pumping every 3 hours at work. I hope there will be no more outstation trips after this anytime soon, but I will still repeat the same process should I be required to go. It has not been easy, but I made it this far and I am not about to give up just yet. I only have about 2 months to go before Ayra starts eating solids and then I can finally stop pumping.

My advice to other mothers in my situation would be, do not give up! It is very difficult but once you get the hang of it, it’s not too bad. Determination will carry you through. And the end results are definitely worth it to see your baby thriving on your milk!

With that, I would also like to salute and give recognition to all mothers out there who breastfeeds their child though working full-time. I now know what it takes and of course, still will continue on with my next child, God willing. Only maybe I shall need to get a better pump next time to halve the pumping time!”

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