First time mothers, you have to hear this. First thing you need to learn about motherhood is breastfeeding. Read all about it and grasp the importance of breast milk. I will not go in details about the benefits of breast milk to your baby, you can Google it yourselves and find million of website, telling you that breast milk is the best for your baby.
A lot of mothers do not know where to start. Some mothers believe in myth that they do not have enough supply or have any to begin with. All mothers should have breast milk. If you have difficulty latching your baby from the start, you can try expressing your milk out. Once you have expressed it, the milk will come naturally and easy for your baby to suck. There are no hard and fast rules about breastfeeding. Do it in a way where you have less stress and you feel comfortable with. As long as your baby gets breast milk especially the first few days milk have colostrum. Colostrum provides resistance to your baby against various diseases and infections.
Get a good pump is the most important if you are a working mum. Don’t be stingy. Avent manual pump cost around RM200+. Imagine how much you can save on milk powder if you have successfully breastfeed your child for 1 year. Formula milk is not cheap, you know. Most mothers that I introduced Avent manual pump to came back to thank me. Nope I am not an agent of Avent. Try it and feel the difference.
For those who have boys at home, I would recommend you get this parenting VCD. It teaches you how to raise boys, not that you don’t already know. It enhances your skills I suppose. It is conducted by the famous Dr. James Dobson from Focus on the Family.
In part 1, he tells you why boys are different to girls. I quote “Boys are different from girls physiologically, emotionally and socially. The series begins with Dr. Dobson examining how God designed boys. These masculine traits can often irritate and confound parents but were intended to be enjoyed and celebrated – as well as molded and “civilized.”
It is a 60 minutes show and plenty of good illustrations. It cost RM19.90 per VCD and RM200.00 for the whole series. I enjoyed part 1 & part 7 and I will get the entire series.
In first part of the series, it tells you how boys are created differently, even from the making in the womb. How the testosterone floods the womb and this hormonal bath alters the way boy’s brain are structure in many ways. The connections between the two hemispheres of the brain are actually damaged. As a result, boys have a harder time integrating and articulating what they know, feel and believe. Boys and Girls are different.
How many of you find that when you are talking to your husband and he is not listening? Men/Boys have the ability to filter things that they do not want to hear. I often find that true. Dr James Dobson has one very useful method, is when you want to communicate something important to your boy/hubby, touch him with yr hand and look him in the eye, you will get his full attention.
One illustration he gave, a father who tried to make his son drink milk and he refused. He asked him 7 times and he refused. Later the father thought that he has a competitive characteristic in him. He told the son, let’s compete and see who drinks the fastest. He divided the milk into 2 glasses and on the count of 3, both finished the milk. Next the son told the father, let’s make it 2 out of 3 wins. Parents do need to be creative, these days.
Have fun with it.