Glad I Didn't Give Up

New mummy Celine Lioe shares the importance of getting ready to breastfeed

- Janice Lin

Some new mums will have wonderful stories to tell when beginning their breastfeeding journey, but for first-time mummy Celine Lioe, her experience was a painful one. She found that her commitment to exclusively breastfeed her newborn was tested almost from the get-go.

While her first two days went well, with baby Keira latching on within the first hour of birth, by the third day, Celine found that her milk supply had really kicked in. She began producing milk faster than she was able to express it, causing her breasts to become engorged.

While some engorgement is normal for nursing mums – it typically only lasts about a week – Celine’s breastfeeding journey started out painfully, as her breasts hardened and became uncomfortably full. She soon developed clogged ducts as her milk supply began to back up, causing painful, hardened lumps to form in her breasts.

“I was in agony for the first couple of weeks,” says Celine. “It came to a point that when I heard my baby cry for milk, I was terrified to nurse because my nipples were sore, bruised and cracked from nursing and pumping.”