One hot afternoon whilst at an old friend’s house, my throat was patched from thirst and I badly needed a glass of cold water. since she was breastfeeding her 8month old daughter I opted to help myself to a glass of cold water. On opening the fridge, the freezer section was stacked with polythene bags filled with a yellowish liquid. she informed me that was her golden stash of breast milk. Never in my life had I seen that quantity of breast milk stored in a freezer. but I had heard of it but never considered it as an option.

I moved back to her living room sipping my cool water slowly and got myself comfortable and ready to listen. What she told me was amazing, she pumped milk from her breasts using a manual breast pump. She had began doing this when her baby turned 3 months and her mandatory maternity leave was close to an end. she had a lot of breast milk and did not have the money to buy formula. She decided to carry out some research on pumping and storage of breast milk and found out that it could be pumped and stored for 6 months. She said that she wished she had done this with her two babies since it not only saved money but the baby continued to get all the nutrients required even when mummy was not around to breast feed. She also swore that breast feeding had helped her lose weight and return quickly to her pre- birth weight.

I was amazed at this new piece of information and set to carry out some research of my own. I found that some private hospitals now had a full-time lactation expert on hand who taught mothers especially first- time mothers how to breast feed and gave them also a diet plan. most people assumed this knowledge came naturally but how wrong they were. research had proven that most moms needed help especially in holding the baby in the right position and getting the baby to also latch onto the nipple properly.

Mothers were being encouraged to breastfeed their children exclusively for six months and then introduce solids alongside breastfeeding up to 2year.
The diet of the mums also must be special. I have found that most people take very good care of a Diary cow than a breastfeeding mom.

As we encourage our moms to breast feed, government should move away from the radio and TV adverts and begin to implement some of the practicalities needed especially for the working woman to continue to breast feed once her maternity leave is over. The work environment should be designed with the breastfeeding mother in mind.