Breastfeeding

August is National Breastfeeding Month! Here are ten books on breastfeeding.

Beautiful Babies: Nutrition for Fertility, Pregnancy, Breast-feeding, and Baby's First Food by Kristen Michaelis - In Beautiful Babies, nutrition educator Kristen Michaelis reveals the truth about diet and pregnancy. Based on her research of the nutrient-rich diets of healthy and fertile populations around the world, she lays out exactly what you should and shouldn't eat when trying to conceive, during pregnancy and while breast-feeding.

Bottled Up: How the Way We Feed Babies Has Come to Define Motherhood, and Why It Shouldn't by Suzanne Barston - As the subject of a popular web reality series, Suzanne Barston and her husband Steve became a romantic, ethereal model for new parenthood. Called "A Parent is Born," the program's tagline was "The journey to parenthood . . . from pregnancy to delivery and beyond." Barston valiantly surmounted the problems of pregnancy and delivery. It was the "beyond" that threw her for a loop when she found that, despite every effort, she couldn't breastfeed her son, Leo. This difficult encounter with nursing--combined with the overwhelming public attitude that breast is not only best, it is the yardstick by which parenting prowess is measured--drove Barston to explore the silenced, minority position that breastfeeding is not always the right choice for every mother and every child.
Part memoir, part popular science, and part social commentary, Bottled Up probes breastfeeding politics through the lens of Barston's own experiences as well as those of the women she has met through her popular blog, The Fearless Formula Feeder. Incorporating expert opinions, medical literature, and popular media into a pithy, often wry narrative, Barston offers a corrective to our infatuation with the breast. Impassioned, well-reasoned, and thoroughly researched, Bottled Up asks us to think with more nuance and compassion about whether breastfeeding should remain the holy grail of good parenthood.

Breastfeeding Made Simple: Seven Natural Laws for Nursing Mothers by Nancy Mohrbacher & Kathleen Kendall-Tackett - Breastfeeding may be natural, but it may also be more challenging than you expect. Some mothers encounter doubts and difficulties, from struggling with the first few feedings to finding a gentle and loving way to comfortably wean from the breast. This second edition of Breastfeeding Made Simple is an essential guide to breastfeeding that every new and expectant mom should own-a comprehensive resource that takes the mystery out of basic breastfeeding dynamics. Understanding the seven natural laws of breastfeeding will help you avoid and overcome challenges such as low milk production, breast refusal, weaning difficulties, and every other obstacle that can keep you from enjoying breastfeeding your baby.

Ina May's Guide to Breastfeeding by Ina May Gaskin - Ina May's Guide to Breastfeeding is filled with helpful advice, medical facts, and real-life stories that will help you understand how and why breastfeeding works and how you can use it to more deeply connect with your baby and your own body. Whether you're planning to nurse for the first time or are looking for the latest, most up-to-date expert advice available, you couldn't hope to find a better guide than Ina May.

Lactivism: How Feminists and Fundamentalists, Hippies and Yuppies, and Physicians and Politicians Made Breastfeeding Big Business and Bad Policy by Courtney Jung - Is breast really best? Breastfeeding is widely assumed to be the healthiest choice, yet growing evidence suggests that its benefits have been greatly exaggerated. New moms are pressured by doctors, health officials, and friends to avoid the bottle at all costs-often at the expense of their jobs, their pocketbooks, and their well-being. In Lactivism, political scientist Courtney Jung offers the most deeply researched and far-reaching critique of breastfeeding advocacy to date. Drawing on her own experience as a devoted mother who breastfed her two children and her expertise as a social scientist, Jung investigates the benefits of breastfeeding and asks why so many people across the political spectrum are passionately invested in promoting it, even as its health benefits have been persuasively challenged. What emerges is an eye-opening story about class and race in America, the big business of breastfeeding, and the fraught politics of contemporary motherhood.

Latch: A Handbook for Breastfeeding with Confidence at Every Stage by Robin Kaplan - Early motherhood is a time of great joy. It can also be filled with new stressors--chief among them: breastfeeding. International Board-Certified Lactation Consultant Robin Kaplan addresses specific breastfeeding concerns, allowing you to feel empowered while breastfeeding and overcome challenges as they arise. After working with countless mothers who have felt unique in their breastfeeding challenges, and as the mother of two who overcame breastfeeding challenges of her own, she knows how deeply personal breastfeeding is.

Sweet Sleep: Nighttime and Naptime Strategies for the Breastfeeding Family by Diane Wiessinger - Sweet Sleep is the first and most complete book on nights and naps for breastfeeding families. It's mother-wisdom, reassurance, and a how-to guide for making sane and safe decisions on how and where your family sleeps, backed by the latest research. It's 4 A.M. You've nursed your baby five times throughout the night. You're beyond exhausted. But where can you breastfeed safely when you might fall asleep? You've heard that your bed is dangerous for babies. Or is it? Is there a way to reduce the risk? Does life really have to be this hard? No, it doesn't. Sweet Sleep is within reach. This invaluable resource will help you sleep better tonight in under ten minutes with the Quick Start guide--and sleep safer every night with the Safe Sleep Seven sort out the facts and fictions of bedsharing and SIDS learn about normal sleep at every age and stage, from newborn to new parent direct your baby toward longer sleep when he's ready tailor your approach to your baby's temperament uncover the hidden costs of sleep training and "cry it out" techniques navigate naps at home and daycare handle criticism from family, friends, and physicians enjoy stories and tips from mothers like you make the soundest sleep decisions for your family and your life.

Unlatched: The Evolution of Breastfeeding and the Making of a Controversy by Jennifer Grayson - Since the rise of artificial formula, we have turned a biological process into a never-ending controversy: A mother breastfeeding her three-year-old son on the cover of Time magazine sets off a firestorm. Facebook takes down photos of women nursing, citing the content as "offensive." The pope weighs in, urging mothers to nurse their children in church or elsewhere "without thinking twice." So how did we get here? What are the consequences of surrendering eons of human evolution for a mode of feeding so alien? Growing up, journalist Jennifer Grayson thought nothing of the fact that she was bottle-fed. But when she became a mother, Grayson considered the impact of missing out on this profound connection. Her book is a worldwide search for answers about the first, most fundamental experience of newborn life. From biblical times to eighteenth-century France, from modern-day Mongolia to inner-city Los Angeles--Unlatched uncovers astonishing cultural, corporate, political, and technological factors at the heart of our contemporary breastfeeding disconnection.

Work. Pump. Repeat.: The New Mom's Survival Guide to Breastfeeding and Going Back to Work by Jessica Shortall - Meet the frenemy of every working, breastfeeding mother: the breast pump. Many women are beyond "breast is best" and on to figuring out how to make milk while returning to demanding jobs. Work. Pump. Repeat. is the first book to give women what they need to know beyond the noise of the "Mommy Wars" and judgment on breastfeeding choices. Jessica Shortall shares the nitty-gritty basics of surviving the working world as a breastfeeding mom, offering a road map for negotiating the pumping schedule with colleagues, navigating business travel, and problem-solving when forced to pump in less-than-desirable locales. Drawing on the war stories, hacks, and humor of working moms, and on her own stories from her demanding job and travel in developing countries, she gives women moral support for dealing with the stress and guilt that come with juggling working and breastfeeding. As she tells the reader in her witty, inspiring manifesto, "Your worth as a mother is not measured in ounces."

Your Baby's Microbiome: The Critical Role of Vaginal Birth and Breastfeeding For Lifelong Health by Toni Harman - At least two amazing events happen during childbirth. There's the obvious main event, which is the emergence of a new human into the world. But there's another event taking place simultaneously, a crucial event that is not visible to the naked eye, an event that could determine the lifelong health of the baby. This is the seeding of the baby's microbiome, the community of "good" bacteria that we carry with us throughout our lives. The seeding of the microbiome, along with breastfeeding and skin-to-skin contact, kick-starts the baby's immune system and helps protect the infant from disease across a lifetime. Researchers are discovering, however, that interventions such as the use of synthetic oxytocin, antibiotics, C-sections, and formula feeding interfere with, or bypass completely, the microbial transfer from mother to baby. These bacteria are vital for human health, and science has linked an imbalance in the human microbiome with multiple chronic diseases. Drawing on the extensive research they carried out for their documentary film Microbirth, authors Toni Harman and Alex Wakeford reveal a fascinating new view of birth and how microscopic happenings can have lifelong consequences, for ourselves, our children--and our species as a whole.