全母乳顧問

星期日南華早報 (4 Mar 12) 刊登了Heidi Lam的一篇文章，回應之前報導有關餵母乳的困難。文章題為：New mothers should seek help from professionals if they want to breastfeed. Heidi 指出，儘管在香港餵哺母乳有不少阻力，但仍有很多成功餵哺母乳的例子，包括全職媽媽及上班媽媽，而她們都有一些共通的特徵，值得我們借鏡。詳情參閱文章、剪報原文，或看以下的轉載。

本文章是回應一篇之前的報導，題為：Before babies hit the bottle — Despite good intentions, nursing mothers in Hong Kong are held back by a lack of support. 報導指很多媽媽都難於持續餵母乳。詳情參考原文。

In response to an earlier report on breastfeeding obstacles, Sunday Morning Post (4 Mar 12) published an article by Heidi Lam, titled: New mothers should seek help from professionals if they want to breastfeed. Heidi said despite obstacles, there are many mothers who are successful in breastfeeding, including full time mothers and workings mothers.  And they have common traits. For details please see the article, original newspaper clipping, or the post below.

Heidi’s article is published in response to an earlier report titled: Before babies hit the bottle — Despite good intentions, nursing mothers in Hong Kong are held back by a lack of support. See the original report.

(以下是Heidi的文章。Below is the article by Heidi.)

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Published in Sunday Morning Post on Mar 04, 2012

New mothers should seek help from professionals if they want to breastfeed

I am writing refer to the article by Vanessa Yung (“Before babies hit the

bottle”, February 26).

Many mothers in Hong Kong experience difficulties with breastfeeding,

and even though most of them try to breastfeed in hospital after giving

birth, most fail to continue. The article rightly mentions a number of

obstacles. But how about those who are successful, how can they do it?

In my years of counselling mothers (as a certified lactation consultant), I

have seen many cases of successful breastfeeding. There are full-time

mothers, working mothers and those who work part-time who are all

breastfeeding. Those who have to work will pump their milk during

separation and nurse when they are back home.

These successful mothers have common traits.

First of all, they are determined and they never gave up.

They did their homework before giving birth to learn more about

breastfeeding and so they were knowledgeable. They attended classes,

joined meetings and talked to other breastfeeding mothers so they could

understand real-life situations.

Also, whenever they faced challenges they asked for help.

Breastfeeding problems can often be fixed if you ask for help from

experienced counsellors or professionals. There are volunteers who are

willing to help and lactation consultants who are professionals.

I would like to stress the importance of learning breastfeeding and

getting well prepared before birth. In Hong Kong, bottle-feeding

dominates and the breastfeeding culture is weak, so how can new

mothers be expected to know how to breastfeed and look after a

breastfed baby if they never see anyone doing it?

How many times do readers see a mother breastfeeding in Hong Kong?

New mothers should learn from reliable sources and get to know

breastfeeding mothers.

They should avoid breastfeeding seminars run by formula companies,

which lure mothers with free gifts. Not only is that against the

International Code of Marketing of Breastmilk Substitutes, their purpose

is to get women to bottle-feed.

Before we can get more maternity leave, nursing rooms, and better

support, it is up to mothers to improve the breastfeeding rate. If they are

determined they can make a change.

Heidi Lam, Discovery Bay

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