Hope for mum who was unhappy, angry at not being able to express milk

SINGAPORE — When she sees other mothers effortlessly breastfeeding their babies in the hospital ward, it is often painful for Ms Nor Adliyah Haryanie, who struggles to express even 10ml of milk for her one-month-old son, who was born prematurely.

The 35-year-old bank teller said: “I felt very unhappy and angry with myself, asking what’s wrong with me, why can’t I pump enough milk for my child? Sometimes I wonder why I have to work so hard to get the milk ... I (felt) like I was so useless.”

Now there may be some relief for her with the launch of Singapore’s first donor human milk bank programme.

KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital (KKH) and Temasek Foundation Cares announced yesterday that there would be a three-year pilot for this programme, which aims to provide a ready supply of safe, pasteurised human breast milk.

This is to be donated to premature and sick babies whose mothers may be unable to provide enough of such milk to meet the infant’s requirements.

Ms Nor Adliyah is concerned that her son may have an adverse reaction to such donated milk, but she is willing to “give it a try” if it helps him grow well, she said.

She has signed up for the programme, which is managed by KKH.

The mother of four had to undergo an emergency Caesarean section to deliver her baby boy prematurely in early July, almost two months earlier than the expected due date in September.

Her three other children — aged 10, five and three — grew up on formula milk as they appeared to prefer the bottle.

When she tried to pump milk for her baby, she discovered that what she produced was just “getting lesser and lesser” even when she tried to do so every three hours.

Typically, mothers of pre-term infants are advised to express breast milk six to eight times in 24 hours, including once or twice at night.

Ms Nor Adliyah then sought the advice of her younger sister, who used to breastfeed.

She also surfed the Internet for solutions, and even tried drinking more avocado juice in the hope of boosting her milk supply, based on a tip she heard. Nothing helped to improve the supply.

Former Speaker of Parliament, Madam Halimah Yacob, who was at the launch, acknowledged that new mothers might face similar challenges in producing milk, “despite their best efforts”.

“For mothers of pre-term babies, the inability to provide a basic need for their child is an added concern,” she said.

The milk bank offers a “fundamental and significant step” in providing better quality of care and in improving a premature baby’s health outcomes, she added.

“Mothers can be assured that should the need arises, there is now a safe source of human milk for their pre-term babies.”