I find that with Motherhood, you start to lose ownership of your breasts. Your newborn decides when he can take possession of them, especially if you are exclusively breastfeeding on demand. Should you get swollen breasts and see a lactation consultant, they will help you to massage your breasts and stimulate your milk flow. That is all fine and dandy, except that they go in and manipulate your breasts like nobody’s business. If you do a traditional Chinese confinement after birth, a confinement lady would like to know how much milk you can pump out. Even your mother and or mother-in- law walk in on your breastfeeding sessions, casually dropping by.
I practically feel like one of those Balinese women with their breasts out on demand, anytime.
Breast pumping has also given a new meaning to “every drop counts”. With a new born at just 3kg or so, pumping maybe 40ml of breast milk at each feeding, you want to sure that you hard-pumped milk is going into the bottle rather than dripping down your breasts.
Motherhood is full of challenges and new experiences, raising all kinds of questions. Exclusive breastfeeding and all its challenges constantly lead me back to the question– whose breasts are these anyway?
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