********** 10 Stars!
Price: US$ 15.95, Available worldwide on Amazon.com
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ISBN: 0452279089
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Here's the 35th-anniversary edition of the big book on breastfeeding, written by the experts at La Leche League International. The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding is a comprehensive resource guide providing just about everything you need to know about how--and why--to breastfeed your baby. Latch on to this book for step-by-step guides to early months, common concerns, problems, and weaning. Additional sections on general nutrition, sleep issues, going back to work, discipline, and fathering are useful for all breastfeeding mothers. Unfortunately the black-and-white photos are not always as clear as they should be, and the informative line-drawings are too scarce.
My breastfeeding bible!, July 29, 2002
Reviewer: Julie Lovisa (Indiana USA) - See all my reviews
Thank goodness for this comprehensive book on breastfeeding! I have several others and none have given me the concrete knowledge and feeling of "I can do it" that this one has. La Leche League is an organization that promotes attachment parenting and is obsessively pro-breastfeeding, but it you can get beyond the preachiness, you'll find that you have a sound, basic guide to all apects of nursing.
From bringing your newborn home to starting solids to weaning (including info on working, nursing multiples, and how fathers can bond) it's all here. One of my own experiences: when I found a lump in one of my breasts while nursing, I consulted this book while waiting for my doctor appointment and was hugely relieved after reading about the rarity of cancer in nursing women and the explanations of several types of benign cysts it probably was.
I also especially like the section on the benefits of breastfeeding for both the infant and mother. You will not find a better lay explanation of how breastmilk positively affects your baby anywhere, in my opinion. I highly recommend this book for any nursing mother who has questions. While, as I stated before, LLL is sometimes pushy in its advocacy of breastfeeding, they are also a wonderful resource. I called our local chapter a few times and was met with pleasant enthusiasm and given wonderful advice.
A must read - mostly . . ., August 25, 2004
Reviewer: Michigan Reader "obsessedwithbooks" - See all my reviews
I read this book before the birth of my first child. The nursing information helped me make a success of a challenging start, and continued to help as my child grew. If you are looking for a "textbook" of nursing technique with some helpful hints for overcoming nursing difficulties, this is a good option.
But there are other aspects of the book that disturb me. For one, it is very value-laden. By that I mean that the book is not really about breastfeeding as much as it is about parenting. It equates sucessful nursing with mothering in a very narrow and limited way. There really is very little room in this book for those moms who work, prefer routined feedings vs. demand feedings, or have any parenting views that differ from the "attachment parenting" paradigm.
Second, there are several statements made without any support or research. One of which was (I'm paraphrasing) that in all of history only one baby has ever been smothered while co-sleeping. I'm assuming they're thinking of the biblical example (king solomon), but anyone who reads the newspaper knows that this statement is absurd. Still, I recommend the book - and it could be especially good for those who are only half-committed to breastfeeding. It certainly gives a persuasave case for it!
A must have reference!, June 12, 2004
Reviewer: Jennifer A Weed (Brownsburg, IN USA) - See all my reviews
This is a must-have, no-nonsense reference guide for the breastfeeding woman. It was invaluable to me when all the questions arose with my first breastfeeding experience, as well as packed with lots of interesting information that made me understand my body much better.
The Breastfeeding Bible, No Excuses, April 29, 2004
Reviewer: Mary C Jozwiak "sugarmama" (Villa Park, Illinois United States) - See all my reviews
The Womanly Art has been considered the ultimate guide for the breastfeeding mother since the 1950s. In those days there was little medical research, most data was anecdotal and there were only a few mothers, and very few medical professionals who knew what breastfeeding was really like. The breastfeeding rates in the USA at that point were abysmal (As was infant health,) and LLL and this book changed all that. Breastfeeding rates rose and continue to rise in the USA and Europe, babies became healthier and breastfeeding became the norm, as it should be, this book and LLL are responsible.
If the information in this book wasn't working and hadn't worked, breastfeeding wouldn't be as workable as it is for so many women for more than a generation, and have the record numbers of women now doing what is BEST for themselves and their babies. This book WORKS!
This book is comprehensive. It covers most aspects of breastfeeding, BUT it pulls NO punches. Having a baby is in no way a convenience, and caring for that baby properly is not convenient either. Breastfeeding is not always simple, but this book makes it direct, and gives you the power and knowlege on how to be successful. Some may be offended by this book's frankness, it's dedication to the fact that BABIES are what this is all about (not convenience) and some are threatened by the facts which prove the absoluteness that breastfeeding has no peer in infant feeding and there is simply NO substitute for Human Milk. But this book is honest, it gives the needed answers and it has thousands, if not milllions, of women and babies to vouch for it. The 2004 Edition (soon to be released) has even more medical benefits (including 47 studies on reduction of breast cancer and the most important IQ studies,) as well as even more information for women who choose to return to the workplace and require expressing milk for their babies while they are gone. (Wait for the new book, it is great!)
Parenting is not for the weak, the complaining, or the excuse makers. That goes double for breastfeeding parents. Breastfeeding CAN be done, and this book ELIMINATES the excuses and leaves the reader with ONE choice, that breastfeeding can be done and should be done. Through it's gentle manner, interesting case studies and medical fact, excuses why "I couldn't breastfeed...." are explained, dealt with and then eliminated by this book. That might makes it *difficult* for some to read. But that is the reason why it is the BEST book on the market for parents. You can do this, and the Womanly Art will give you the ability to do so, if you are willing.
Eleanor Roosevelt once said, "No one can make you feel inferior without your consent." The same can be said for making one feel "Guilty." No one can make an other feel guilty, one can only tell the truth, which is what this book does.
Read this book, and perhaps speak with a local La Leche League leader, and you WILL be able to breastfeed. It may take some courage, but that is what parenting is all about.
With everything new mothers need to know about breastfeeding, April 5, 2004
Reviewer: Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews
Now in its seventh revised and updated edition, The Womanly Art Of Breastfeeding is a straightforward and thoroughly dependable 480-page reference filled from cover to cover with everything new mothers need to know about breastfeeding. From coping with obstacles to breast feeding; to the advantages human milk has for babies; to suggested positioning techniques, and so much more, The Womanly Art Of Breastfeeding is an excellent, "user friendly" instructional and reference resource which has been skillfully and knowledgeably compiled by the La Leche League, an organization which has served to educate mothers for more than 50 years.
The Best Book on Breastfeeding Yet, April 14, 2003
Reviewer: Kristine N. Thomas (Seattle, WA USA) - See all my reviews
I was very pleased to find this book and am thrilled that there is such a wonderful group of women out there that have written it!
I would like to say that I was very fortunate and that my son took to nursing immediately after birth and I have had no problems whatsoever with it after 4 months. But for women who are still pregnant and thinking about nursing, or those that have new babies, I would recommend this book without any hestitation whatsoever. I was amazed after reading this book to find that I agreed with all of the values that La Leche League promotes. I am in no way a traditional person, yet I feel that the best any of us can do for society is to raise a happy baby who in turn will grow up to be a stable adult. In that regard I am a traditional mother who believes in putting her baby before herself.
One reviewer on here wrote that she was in tears after reading the book and that it made her feel bad about returning to work. Well, she SHOULD feel bad. Nature gave her tools to use which in part are her intuition, and she ignored them. She claims that her baby is fine, but methinks that's rationalizing the situation. Nobody HAS to have a child. You should only have one if you are willing to raise the child yourself, rather them foisting them off on somebody else. And if you are willing to give up frivolous items to save money and you still can't stay at home, guess what? DON'T HAVE A BABY. They don't ask to be born, and the least you can do is care for them like every other animal in the animal kingdom.
One other item is scheduled feedings. When I am hungry, I eat. When I am not, I don't. Sometimes I don't eat for several hours, and sometimes I eat half an hour after a meal. The point here is that you need to listen to your stomach. I am a thin person and the overweight people I know are the only people that actually "schedule" their meals. When your baby is hungry, they need to be fed. Scheduling them is beyond ludicrous and it makes me wonder where a mother's common sense is. Do they force themselves to only eat at certain times of the day too? One wonders.
In closing, this book should help mothers out who care for their children and want to do right by them and not make excuses for themselves. Anybody who complains about the values promoted in this book is kidding themselves. They need to look in the mirror and ask themselves how they want their children to turn out in 18 years.