Motherhood is such an intimate, personal journey. It’s full of tender moments and trying times. For young mum Ilham Amani, sharing her motherhood story is not just a prerogative, but a passion. Her advice and wisdom are an important contribution to new parents; even dads who wish to support their spouses. An unofficial fairy godmother to all the nursing mums, Ilham shares with us what she does to ensure smooth and hassle-free breastfeeding.
Sharing her Personal Motherhood Journey
With over 50,000 followers on Instagram, fashionista, small business owner, influencer and young mum Ilham Amani has definitely made a name for herself. Her company, Kirana Kurung, sells beautifully designed and expertly tailored baju kurung for Malaysian women. When not busy catering to the whims of her adorable firstborn son, Rayyan, Ilham does sponsored posts, product reviews, skincare tips and cooking videos on her main social media platform. She also often posts about her lifestyle and family, including candid moments with her husband and baby, and advice about motherhood—particularly, breastfeeding.
Offering Practical Breastfeeding Advice
Ilham has many good tips on how to make a mum’s breastfeeding journey much easier. She shares tips on how to increase your yield, and how to store and thaw your milk when not needed. She also destigmatises a lot of misconceptions about breastfeeding. This post, for instance, talks about how to increase your breast milk yield, which can be a big problem faced by many nursing mums. This is especially so during the beginning of their motherhood journey. Here are her tips on how to increase your supply.
Her main tip is to ‘double pump’, which is where both breasts are pumped at the same time. This technique has been scientifically proven to increase breast milk let-down by 18%. Ilham suggests investing in two good quality breast pumps for this purpose as well as a good pair of pumping bra and nursing bra. This is to hold the breast pumps in place which can then allow you to multitask and hopefully save on time. She also advises to do some self-care while double pumping—activities that truly spark joy. This is also to reduce the level of the stress-hormone cortisol, which can reduce yield. You should also avoid checking on the yield ever so often, to prevent feelings of frustration. In this post, she gives us more tips on how to increase your yield using a technique known as ‘power pumping’.
For mums who are interested in trying out ‘power pumping’, Ilham suggests a form of intermittent pumping with a duration of one hour. Here’s the breakdown of the process:
- pump 20 minutes
- rest 10 minutes
- pump 10 minutes
- rest 10 minutes
- pump 10 minutes
You can follow this regimen if you want to increase your yield. Coupled with the double pumping technique mentioned earlier, you’ll be on your way to increasing your breast milk supply in no time. So, as you can see, Ilham provides some good, practical breastfeeding advice that any nursing mum can use. But that’s not all, she also uses her platform to educate, destigmatise and normalise the practice of breastfeeding. In the following post, she makes a light-hearted video about the realities of breastfeeding in the hopes of enlightening her audience on the challenges and obligations that come with motherhood—showing that a mother’s job goes far beyond changing diapers and singing lullabies.
As part of her dedicated breastfeeding regimen, Ilham spends any free time she gets expressing extra breast milk in store—particularly for when she’s not around to feed the baby. She reminds her audience that breastfeeding doesn’t just involve straight to mouth feeding but also bottle feeding with expressed milk. So in order to make enough for Rayyan, she pumps every day—at home, at work and even in the car. Ilham testifies that this technique (along with some oral supplement she takes) has worked wonders for increasing her breast milk supply.
Normalising Breastfeeding with Online Content
Breastfeeding has long been a touchy subject in Malaysia. It is often surrounded in taboo and stigma. Many celebrities have been shamed in the past for breastfeeding their kids in public—even though it is a natural, human thing to do. Moreover, many businesses and establishments are not breastfeeding friendly. There may be little to no facilities that allow nursing mums to express their yield during those crucial moments. It is influencers like Ilham that allows the practice of breastfeeding to be normalised in an otherwise conservative society. But of course, her advice is also valuable. And will also help a lot of nursing mothers, especially new ones, to increase their breast milk supply if the need to do so ever arises. Not only to ensure your little bundle of joy stays happy and full, but also for a smooth sailing motherhood journey.
For more insightful stories and fun recipes, stay tuned to Motherhood Story!