Loving Bond

One resilient mum’s breastfeeding journey

- Jeffrey Kong

Many stories on breastfeeding are accompanied by pictures of blissful mothers nursing their equally happy newborns. Not so for Mdm Kelly Chua, 39, who struggled to breastfeed her 4-month-old daughter Eva.

“Pregnancy was a walk in the park compared to breastfeeding!” said Kelly, who is working in the finance industry.

“My milk supply was low, my baby was hardly satisfied after each feed. Latching was accompanied with toe-curling pain, or my baby would fight my breast.”

Wanting to give the best to her newborn, she persisted. Kelly tried power pumping, a technique she read about online that involved using a breast pump to constantly stimulate the breasts to produce more milk.

But power pumping did more harm than good for her – she ended up over pumping, which resulted in sore, painful and raw nipples. She also developed blocked milk ducts and milk blisters: “My breasts were burning and they were hard as rock. I tried doing breast massage to clear the blocked ducts… the pain was just excruciating.”