Books About Breastfeeding

Meg Nagle

Part memoir, part sharing of women's stories, part research, part boobin'...

"It feels so right to breastfeed my baby to sleep but everyone tells me not to." "My baby will not stay asleep when I put her down. What can I do?" "My breastfed toddler continues to wake at night. Is this normal?" Our instincts are there, but for many of us, instincts are confusing and hard to trust at first. You want some more sleep and everyone seems to be telling you different things and offering contradicting advice.

This book is not a guide that gives you step by step instructions for getting your baby to sleep longer, because every baby is an individual, and every baby wakes for important reasons. This book will help you learn how to trust your own instincts and follow the lead of your breastfed child... while offering different suggestions on how to get more sleep without having your baby cry, protest, or self-settle.

This book is for those looking for gentle suggestions, an understanding of what is normal in breastfed babies and toddlers, and what to do when everyone says your way of mothering through breastfeeding (especially at night) is not best... when you know in your heart that it is.

Hilary Flower

Finally, the 2nd edition of a much-needed book There is no doubt about it-when breastfeeding and pregnancy overlap, the questions abound. This book is still the only comprehensive resource on this topic. Hilary Flower gives complete and in-depth answers to a wide range of questions related to breastfeeding during pregnancy and tandem nursing. Drawn from a great reservoir of mother wisdom, this book pools the stories of over 300 mothers from around the world. Extensive reviews of medical research and discussions with experts in the fields of nutrition, obstetrics, and anthropology have provided the author with a thorough understanding of this important topic. Each person's experience will be a one-of-a-kind adventure, full of surprises and choices. Adventures in Tandem Nursing provides an essential source of support, humor, and information for the journey. The 2nd edition has the latest research on safety and nutrition, many more mothers' stories and quotes, checklists to keep you on track, chapter summaries, online resources, and all new photos and illustrations. You will also find four additional chapters: high risk pregnancy, the nursling's needs, closely spaced babies, and "triandem" nursing.

Amy Brown

How often does my baby really need to feed? How do I know my baby is getting enough? Is it normal for my baby to wake at night?

When you're expecting a new baby, suddenly everyone around you becomes an expert - particularly when it comes to how to feed them. It is easy to become overwhelmed by conflicting advice, myths and exaggerated stories.

The Positive Breastfeeding Book cuts through the anecdotes, giving you clear, no-judgement, non-preachy, evidence-based information to help you make the right decisions for you and your baby. It will help you understand how breastfeeding works, and supports you in developing strategies to make sure that whilst you're looking after the baby, you're getting taken care of too.

Jam-packed with everything you ever wanted to know about breastfeeding (and a whole lot you never knew you did!), it will take you through tips for planning for your baby's arrival, coping with those early months, and knowing what to do and where to seek help if challenges come up. It will guide you through feeding in public, going back to work, and even rediscovering a glass of wine. You'll find plenty of real stories and guidance throughout from mothers and experts in supporting breastfeeding. There are handy chapters on formula and mixed feeding, which cut through advertising spiel and give you the facts you need to choose and use formula safely.

The Positive Breastfeeding Book doesn't promise to make it easy, nor will it get up in the middle of the night for you, but it will empower you with the knowledge and encouragement you need to feed your baby with confidence.

Amy Brown

Across the world mothers are urged to breastfeed, but in Western society many find this a difficult task. Those who stop can feel demoralised and unsure as to why such a desired, encouraged and biologically normal behaviour can appear so challenging in reality. Breastfeeding Uncovered examines why this continues to happen, revealing how complex social and cultural messages work against new mothers, damaging the normal physiology of breastfeeding and making it seem unmanageable. Dr Brown removes the focus from the mother and instead urges society to rethink its attitude towards breastfeeding and mothering and instead to support, encourage and protect mothers to feed their babies.

This book is for anyone who has ever struggled with breastfeeding, supported new mothers or just wondered what all the fuss is about. Most of all it is a must read for anyone who has ever thought a breastfeeding mother should cover up, or feed her baby elsewhere.

Hilary Jacobson

When breastfeeding does not go as hoped, mothers often have feelings of loss, sadness, anger, fear, failure, guilt and self-blame. Mothers then say they are heart-broken, crushed, and even devastated. These painful emotions double a mother's risk for postpartum depression. Yet, our healthcare system does not have guidelines in place to help mothers prevent the escalating emotions of Breastfeeding Grief. We have no "plan B" which guides mothers to promote optimal bonding when their breastfeeding goals are not met. And our mental health experts do not understand how to guide mothers in their emotional healing, so mothers can fully enjoy their baby with renewed confidence. Hilary Jacobson, author of "Mother Food: A Breastfeeding Diet Guide with Lactogenic Foods and Herbs" is a holistic breastfeeding specialist and clinical hypnotherapist. Her easy-to-read book "Healing Breastfeeding Grief" contains the essential information mothers need to navigate their way back into a positive sense of self, and an intimate connection and bond with their baby.

Lisa Marasco

"Every drop of your milk is precious. Even small amounts have a unique mix of ingredients and immunities that continue to bolster your baby's health in a way that no formula can ever match."

Worried about making enough milk for your baby? Get the help you need with this practical guide from two lactation experts.

Since publication of this "low milk supply bible" a decade ago, new insights and better ways to maximize milk production have emerged, making this updated and expanded edition a must-have for anyone struggling with supply issues. Endorsed by La Leche League International and written by leading lactation consultants, Making More Milk offers effective strategies for both time-honored and innovative ways to make more milk, including new chapters on pregnancy and birth issues, foods and nutrition, and alternative therapies.

Books For Advocacy

Gabrielle Palmer

As revealing as Freakonomics, shocking as Fast Food Nation and thought provoking as No Logo, The Politics of Breastfeeding exposes infant feeding as one of the most important public health issues of our time.

Kimberly Seals Allers

Breastfeeding. The mere mention of it has many mothers wracked with anxiety (how will I manage with work or other kids? what if I don't make enough milk?) or guilt about not doing it (will I be hurting my child if I choose not to breastfeed? what will people think of me if I choose not to?). This hot-button issue is one we've talked about repeatedly in the media and in celebrity culture. Remember when Angelina Jolie posed for the cover of W nursing her newborn? Oh, the controversy! And when Barbara Walters complained about the woman breastfeeding next to her on a plane? She was forced to issue a public apology. Or what about when supermodel Gisele Bunchen declared that there should be worldwide law that mothers be required to breastfeed their babies for the first six months of life? All hell broke loose.

This topic gets people riled up, and there has never been a narrative account that explores the breastfeeding big picture for parents and their children in today’s world. The Big Letdown by author, journalist, and breastfeeding advocate Kimberly Seals Allers will change that for the better and open up a candid conversation about the cultural, sociological, and economic forces that shape the breastfeeding culture and how it undermines women in the process.

Charlotte Young

All babies need feeding - and yet in modern life something so simple has become an issue fraught with difficulty for new parents. Society, politics and culture have worked together to create a situation where parents are presented with a choice - breast or bottle? Such a choice implies that the product (the milk) and the method of delivery (breast or bottle) are equal, but is this true? In many countries bottle-feeding has become so common that it is never questioned, and indeed is often seen as the answer to parents problems. Not sleeping at night? Not enough milk? Mum needs medication? Reach for the formula. Every day women are told by their friends, family and even their doctors that bottle-feeding is the answer. Yet research shows that most mothers want to breastfeed, and that babies who are not breastfed are at increased risk of illness. Why Breastfeeding Matters tackles some of these issues head-on, in a frank discussion intended to help parents and others navigate the world of infant feeding. It is neither preachy nor a how-to manual; it outlines some of the reasons why breastfeeding matters, to mothers and their babies, and explains how these issues can affect the way in which mothers use bottles and formula if they need to. Drawing on research, and the authors experience as a lactation consultant, it is essential reading for anyone wondering about how to feed their new baby.

Amy Bentley

Food consumption is a significant and complex social activity?and what a society chooses to feed its children reveals much about its tastes and ideas regarding health. In this groundbreaking historical work, Amy Bentley explores how the invention of commercial baby food shaped American notions of infancy and influenced the evolution of parental and pediatric care.

Until the late nineteenth century, infants were almost exclusively fed breast milk. But over the course of a few short decades, Americans began feeding their babies formula and solid foods, frequently as early as a few weeks after birth.

By the 1950s, commercial baby food had become emblematic of all things modern in postwar America. Little jars of baby food were thought to resolve a multitude of problems in the domestic sphere: they reduced parental anxieties about nutrition and health; they made caretakers feel empowered; and they offered women entering the workforce an irresistible convenience. But these baby food products laden with sugar, salt, and starch also became a gateway to the industrialized diet that blossomed during this period.

Today, baby food continues to be shaped by medical, commercial, and parenting trends. Baby food producers now contend with health and nutrition problems as well as the rise of alternative food movements. All of this matters because, as the author suggests, it's during infancy that American palates become acclimated to tastes and textures, including those of highly processed, minimally nutritious, and calorie-dense industrial food products.

Gabrielle Palmer

The Politics of Breastfeeding, first published in 1988, remains a hugely important book. It exposes infant feeding as one of the most important global public health issues of our time, and describes how big business and vested interests influence the intimate relationship between mothers and their babies to the detriment of all, rich or poor, in the West or in the developing world.

In Why the Politics of Breastfeeding Matter, the central ideas of The Politics of Breastfeeding are distilled into a concise form, making it the perfect introduction to understanding the complex forces that govern what many think of as a simple choice to breastfeed or not.

Amy Brown

A startlingly large number of women who want to breastfeed have to stop before they are ready, leaving them feeling a range of negative emotions, including grief, anger, guilt, shame and frustration, and often blaming themselves. But in a society that places little value on breastfeeding and mothers' feelings, their painful stories are often swept under the carpet to the detriment of women's mental health and experience of new motherhood.

Professor Amy Brown has researched what breastfeeding really means to women, how they can feel when things don't go according to plan and importantly, how we can change things for the next generation of women. Her findings make fascinating reading for anyone with personal experience of breastfeeding difficulties, those who support mothers to make infant feeding decisions that are right for them, or those who simply want to be part of changing the conversation.