Hello, I'm a typical working mum in Singapore. Ok, technically speaking, I'm not working yet, but I will be in less than a month's time. Yes, I'm allowed four months of maternity leave, and my time at home attending to the needs of my firstborn, nurturing him and watching him grow day by day will end come late May, a day, in fact, before my own birthday (Yaay, Happy Birthday to me.) What an irony. Singaporean working mums are given four months of maternity leave when the World Health Organisation strongly advocates total breastfeeding for at least the first six months of a baby's life and, going by what the lactation consultants at my hospital of choice as well as all the breastfeeding pamphlets I received and the mummy's magazines I've read say, direct breastfeeding is the way to go. How on earth do we do that when those of us who have to work are required to return to work after just four months? And even if we do manage to express milk while at work, surely the level of work stress and inconvenience would affect the amount of nutritional milk we can pump to take home to our baby. I mean, there are those of us who are in jobs that force us to be constantly on the go, sometimes even leaving little time for a breather, much less time to lug our precious breast pumps to a private room, sit leisurely and express for 15 minutes. By the time you're done cleaning and washing up, plus storing your breastmilk, almost half an hour would have gone by. And considering how stress can affect the amount of breastmilk expressed, I think I'd count myself very lucky if I could still pump the usual amount of milk during those 15 minutes while forced to mentally keep track of the time and recall what task to focus on next upon returning to my workstation.
Oh, but I digress. Do not be mistaken. The whole point of me establishing this blog isn't to whine about how life can be so unfair to us working mums living in this competitive little red dot on the world map. In fact, I'd much rather my mum-oir contained happier entries although I know that, from time to time, there might be less than positive musings and recounts. After all, I AM more than happy to be a mother for the first time to my little baby boy. It's been challenging, hence the late start of this blog, but overall pretty satisfying thus far. Therefore, let's look forward to my next entry which, I hereby promise, shall be one that portrays more joy. :)
