Your Bosom Buddy

With Thomson Medical’s home-care service, professional help is just a call away for breastfeeding mummies.

One of the best gifts a mother can give her child is something that money can’t buy.

The benefits of breast milk are so many – from protecting the baby against diseases to lowering the mother’s risk of breast cancer – that the World Health Organization recommends all infants to be exclusively breastfed till six months of age.

However, the breastfeeding journey is not always smooth for all mummies. This is why Thomson ParentCraft Centre is big on providing lactation advice to all parents, and it has set up a home-care service to attend to its discharged mothers in the comfort of their own homes.

For Mdm Junie Pong, 37, it was a relief that she was able to get professional help when she needed it most.

“I’ve experienced just about every breastfeeding issue except full-blown mastitis (breast inflammation),” said the mother of two. “Engorgement, blocked ducts, fever from blocked ducts, blocked nipples, bad latching… no one told me breastfeeding was going to be so difficult! All the books made it sound really easy.”

After delivering her daughter Amelia at Thomson Medical three years ago, Mdm Pong found herself with engorged breasts and sore nipples from poor latching. “It was horrible… it took me many tear-inducing massages to ease the engorgement,” she said. “I was always at the clinic for help, so you could say I practically lived in the ParentCraft Centre!”