Breastfeeding and the obstacles (part 1)

During our visit to my baby's paed, I was criticized by the nurse (who was giving my baby the Rotavirus vaccine) and by a mom (who happened to be inside the special room-gassing her son) for not giving my baby plain water. I didn't prepare for the multi-attack, so i totally forgot about the facts involving breastmilk and content of water inside bm. Since they were older than me, and seemed to be more experienced than I am (a young mother with her firstborn child), they kept on asking me to feed my baby with plain water so that she knows how to drink water when she's older. I just shut my mouth and assumed that all of them are stupid (hehe.. that was my way of comforting myself). My husband also didn't know what to say, because of our lack of knowledge. I could still remember he asked me to give Lissa water and that was before I found out about the not-to-give-water-to-a-fully-bf-baby thing. What I know previously, dont give any water because bm itself has water. But the scientific and extravaganza explanation lies beyond my knowledge.
So, I did my surfing today to search for the facts. and this is what i found :
"You do not need to give water to a fully breastfed baby. In fact, doing so may not be good for him. If you replace nourishing milk with water, he'll miss out on nutrients he needs and it may upset his feeding habits.
Breastmilk has antibodies which protect your baby against infection, so missing out on milk may make him more likely to become unwell.

Breastfed babies do not need extra water, even in hot weather. Studies in hot climates have shown that babies who are allowed to breastfeed whenever they want do not become dehydrated.
Breastmilk is itself mostly water. When it's hot, babies tend feed more often, for short periods of time. This way they get extra foremilk, which is thinner and more refreshing than the fat-rich hindmilk, which comes at the end of a feed. Letting your baby have as many extra feeds as he wishes when it is hot means that he will get plenty of water.

It may be wise to offer formula-fed babies some boiled, cooled water in addition to their usual feeds in hot weather."
See? told you so, right? (sometimes rasa geram sangat dengan orang yang memandai ni...!)
Actually i have to give extra extra thank you to Mommy Nadia (my sifu! hait!). She was the one who told me not to feed my baby with plain water.
To my surprise, the so-called-more-experienced-mom told me that she forgot to give her son the Rotavirus vaccine. Her son was diagnosed with Rotavirus infection when he was 1 year-old and now was having a very slow development. He was starting to walk when he got infected that he suddenly stopped walking.
Facing the situation - being a full-breastfeeding mom- really make me realize how tough to stick-up to our principle. We really need to take a stand to this. I still remember how hard it was and still is - though getting better at it.
Working in the all male working environment - even being pregnant affect their perspectives towards a working female. I've heard: "Keje kat sini takde beza2 lelaki dgn perempuan, kecuali kalau handicapped. Lainlah kalau u pregnant. Bolehlah dapat pengecualian." This was uttered by our Senior Manager to my female colleague. I just can't believe my ears! How come he matched a pregnant woman as being a handicapped to a company? (I was 7 months pregnant at that time. and still managed to make a round in the factory, arranged for tools for calibration, joined tools audit held at Tanjung Malim, conducted production trials and closed monitor the trial where I went to the line and actually monitor how they run the trials - unlike a few male engineers in my ofce who'll just instruct people and sit at their own comfort in the ofce while waiting for the result!) When now being a fully breastfeeding mom, I basically set my own schedule so that I managed to fulfill my pumping routine daily. Though we have a female surau, it is located quite far from the ofce, which usually took me approximately 10 minutes to get there.So I figure that I need to get a new spot for my pumping activity. I went in pumping inside a dark room in my ofce - with no air-conditioner and with a glassed wall - praying that no one will enter the room or look inside it while i was in there. Luckily, I managed to pump peacefully even though sometimes people get inside the room just to walk by without noticing me pumping! Most of them were shocked when I greeted or called their names. It was hilarious just to see their face. Some of them wonder what I was doing inside that room. They even thought I kept my baby in there since they saw me bringing bottles of milk from the room (i kept the ebm inside cooler bag on my desk).
I'll continue on the same entry later on..
Praying to Allah that I manage to bf Lissa at least till her 2 years old.. amiiinnn

To Lissa gurl, Mama always love you!