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As a new mother, this was one of the most frustrating hurdles we faced. With so much on our plate, we had so many questions about breastfeeding. When will the milk kick in? Why is my child crying? Is he hungry? How can I do better... We were left wondering why something that was so simple would end up being so difficult and even after a few kids, it still baffling. So we turned to our community of amazing mamas on Instagram and asked for tips on breastfeeding. 

We received so many good ideas and tips that we thought we should compile it here for easy reference and also to spread the love! 

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1 - Loads of Rest - Difficult as it may sound, a lactation consultant we saw told us if you're not getting 3 - 4 hours of rest, you will not be able to produce the amount of milk you need. So get some rest, hand the baby over to the nurses, nannies or family members so you can get a little bit of shut eye! And the good ole mothering advice - sleep when the baby sleeps... That's GOLD!

 2 - Direct Latching - The more you nurse, the more you'll produce milk. Indulge in some nursing friendly tops so you can get used to nursing / pumping on the go! 

3 - Drink lots of liquids - Find yourself often thirsty, it's your body's way of indicating that you need to consume more liquids. If you're doing confinement and can't drink water, red date tea does the trick too. Some other great recommendations we got were papaya and fish soup (see recipe below), breasfeeding herbal soup from Mummamia, Weleda Lactation Tea  and Mother's Mlk Tea. 

4 - Lactation Cookies - We thought it must be just a trend but actually works!! We baked our own following a receipe from Bellybelly. We added raisins and the kids loved it. Brewers Yeast and Flaxseed meal are the critical ingredients and you can find them in regular supermarkets! One of our followers also recommended lactation cookies from Pinky Mackay.

5 - Supplements - Other than a balanced diet, some mamas swore by supplments including Fennel Essential Oil, Coconut Oil, etc. 

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Recipe for Green Papaya with Fish Soup 

(from babycenter.com.my)

Ingredients

• 500 grams of fish bones (preferable to use threadfin - kurau - fish bones)
• 500 grams of green papaya (the flesh of the fruit is white)
• 3 litres of water
• 4 slices of ginger (this will help cut down any fishy taste or smell)
• 6 cloves of garlic
• 3 stalks of spring onion
• Salt to taste

Directions

• Boil the water, then add ginger, garlic and spring onion.
• Cut the papaya into small slices. Discard seeds.
• Pour boiling water over the green papaya to remove sap, then drain.
• Combine the fish bones into the boiling pot, followed by the green papaya.
• Turn down the fire, leave to boil for about half an hour to reduce.

This should yield about three rice bowls of soup. 

xoxo