Here are 100 books that Breastfeeding Answers fans have personally recommended if you like
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I’ve been a lactation consultant and a breastfeeding counsellor for nearly 20 years, ever since my own two breastfeeding journeys. I never stop learning in this job. It’s a professional requirement but, luckily, also an addiction I enjoy. I fully identify as a lactation nerd. I’m the author of 4 books that span the world of breasts and a podcaster. As an ex-teacher, I’m passionate about education and communication. When I can support a parent to reach their goals and feed their child for as long as they want to, it’s a magic feeling and it never gets old. I feel honoured to be doing the work I do.
Being a lactation consultant is sometimes like being a detective and this book feels like I have Sherlock Holmes by my side. I love the way it focuses on practical steps and combines science and research with a friendly, readable style.
Supporting parents who are struggling with milk production is one the hardest aspects of the job, and because this book is geared toward parents too, it feels like we can do the investigating together and work as a team. It’s a book I use every week.
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"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…
I’ve been a lactation consultant and a breastfeeding counsellor for nearly 20 years, ever since my own two breastfeeding journeys. I never stop learning in this job. It’s a professional requirement but, luckily, also an addiction I enjoy. I fully identify as a lactation nerd. I’m the author of 4 books that span the world of breasts and a podcaster. As an ex-teacher, I’m passionate about education and communication. When I can support a parent to reach their goals and feed their child for as long as they want to, it’s a magic feeling and it never gets old. I feel honoured to be doing the work I do.
I’m not from a medical background, so I have to work harder to understand how to support babies and children with complex health needs. This book is great at taking me into that world and explaining why breastfeeding matters and why these families need my help. It also has quiz questions to check understanding, and I love the paintings by artist Leanne Pearce.
High quality support plays a vital role in protecting breastfeeding and there are clear policies and training in the maternity and neonatal settings. But what happens when support is needed for infants and children in the separate paediatric setting where training and support lags behind?
Breastfeeding the Brave addresses this under-researched area, highlighting the needs and challenges of medically complex infants and children in paediatrics. Aspects of care related to sleep and bedsharing in hospital, responsive parenting and maternal mental health are also discussed. Drawing on novel research it explores the difficulties of feeding children with both common as well…
I’ve been a lactation consultant and a breastfeeding counsellor for nearly 20 years, ever since my own two breastfeeding journeys. I never stop learning in this job. It’s a professional requirement but, luckily, also an addiction I enjoy. I fully identify as a lactation nerd. I’m the author of 4 books that span the world of breasts and a podcaster. As an ex-teacher, I’m passionate about education and communication. When I can support a parent to reach their goals and feed their child for as long as they want to, it’s a magic feeling and it never gets old. I feel honoured to be doing the work I do.
I meet women who had babies decades ago and are still in tears now when they try and talk about their attempts to breastfeed. Breastfeeding matters so much to the families we work with and when it doesn’t work out, it can be heart-breaking.
This book reminds me why my work matters. It also reminds me why governments, health districts, and health professionals need to care about breastfeeding, too – and make sure support is funded. It’s a book that motivates me to get up in the morning and open my inbox.
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…
I’ve been a lactation consultant and a breastfeeding counsellor for nearly 20 years, ever since my own two breastfeeding journeys. I never stop learning in this job. It’s a professional requirement but, luckily, also an addiction I enjoy. I fully identify as a lactation nerd. I’m the author of 4 books that span the world of breasts and a podcaster. As an ex-teacher, I’m passionate about education and communication. When I can support a parent to reach their goals and feed their child for as long as they want to, it’s a magic feeling and it never gets old. I feel honoured to be doing the work I do.
As a middle-class white lady from London, I have to work extra hard to make sure I hear the voices of mothers who are not like me. Listening to stories from different cultures and hearing about diverse experiences is important for my work. This book is filled with stories from mothers from Indian and South Asian backgrounds.
It doesn’t pretend that breastfeeding is all rose petals and butterflies. These mothers have gone through some tough challenges and have not always had the support they needed. I love that it’s a book about women being strong and why breastfeeding matters to them.
As natural as it may seem, breastfeeding rarely comes easy. It is a process that needs to be learned. It is a journey in which one can easily feel overwhelmed and ready to give up. It can also be a lonely journey, full of self-doubt and often accompanied by guilt. But with the right knowledge and support, it can be truly fulfilling.
'Drops of Nurture' is an anthology of 30 heart-warming breastfeeding stories - incredible stories of strength, commitment and resilience from some amazing mothers to let breastfeeding mothers know that they are not alone in this journey. That whatever…
My passion for children’s welfare began as a psychology undergraduate over 30 years ago and burns just as fiercely today. As a trainer and author, I share with parents and professionals recent advances in research that reveal the small but powerful steps adults can take to help children flourish and thrive. This requires letting go of outdated and harmful views of children and offering them the tender care and guidance they need to come to believe that they are loved, worthy and capable. I absolutely believe that by taking these steps together we can build a more harmonious and loving society.
You can trust Pinky McKay. A Lactation Consultant with decades of experience who has worked with thousands of parents, there’s not a baby problem that she hasn’t encountered and solved. This compassionate book covers the many reasons baby may be crying and is loaded with solid, kind, useful, practical advice to help frazzled parents soothe their precious bundles. Importantly, it also has baby feeding information you can trust. Written with bite-size ideas so that tired parents can read it in five-minute chunks if they choose, Pinky’s empathy for babies and parents can be felt on every page.
100 Ways to Calm the Crying addresses the reasons babies cry, from the normal developmental changes that may make them more sensitive, to painful conditions such as colic and reflux. Along the way, Pink McKay offers gentle strategies to help you calm and connect with your baby, practical tips to help you cope with crying and sleepless nights, and ways to identify symptoms that may require professional help.
When I was a young mom, I had questions: Why won’t my baby sleep? Are all these hiccups normal? Am I doing the best I can for my child? I wanted answers. So, I read lots of books and learned as much as I could. While no book can give you all the answers for your unique child, reading some good ones can take some of the mystery out of parenting.
This book is the encyclopedia of baby care. It has it all, from guidelines for newborn care, to safety checks, to tips for choosing childcare programs. The first half covers stages of development, and the second is organized by topic. It’s super-easy to check the index for what you want and then flip to the page. Sure, you can consult Dr. Google about these things, but it’s so handy to just pull the book off the shelf and start reading. I consider it a comprehensive, up-to-date, indispensable guide for new parents.
The guide to every aspect of infant care that’s most recommended by pediatricians and trusted by parents, with over four million copies sold—now in a completely revised and updated fifth edition!
From the American Academy of Pediatrics, the nation’s most authoritativename in childcare, comes the definitive all-in-one resource Your Baby’s First Year. Featuring new and expanded content, including the latest reports on cutting-edge research into early brain development, the fully illustrated fifth edition of Your Baby’s First Year includes
• Guidelines for prenatal and newborn care, with spotlights on maternal nutrition, exercise, and screening tests during pregnancy • Milestones for…
I got hooked on breastfeeding when, during my health visitor training, our class had a lecture from Drs. Penny and Andrew Stanway, who wrote the original Breast is Best. I breastfed my own children, became a breastfeeding counsellor and lactation consultant (IBCLC), and championed breastfeeding as a health visitor and midwife. I then worked for 14 years with the UNICEF UK Baby Friendly Initiative, teaching and supporting healthcare staff to improve standards of care for breastfeeding mothers and babies. Throughout, I gained a huge respect for babies’ abilities in relation to breastfeeding. This directly influenced my belief in their capacity to continue feeding themselves when they start solid food, which is my current focus.
This was the book that really opened my eyes to the power of marketing, and the impact this can have on the way babies are fed – in all countries of the world. It’s an absolute classic – a seminal work. It showed me how the infant formula industry (and increasingly the baby food industry in general) uses any tactics it can to influence and distort the dialogue around infant feeding. I was especially horrified to learn how, as a health visitor and midwife, I could unwittingly be used to promote products and practices that had the power to undermine breastfeeding, even while I thought I was supporting mothers and babies to do it.
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. Every thirty seconds a baby dies from infections due to a lack of breastfeeding and the use of bottles, artificial milks and other risky products. In her powerful book Gabrielle Palmer describes how big business uses subtle techniques to pressure parents to use alternatives to breastmilk. The infant feeding product companies' thirst for profit systematically undermines mothers' confidence in their ability to breastfeed their babies. An…
I got hooked on breastfeeding when, during my health visitor training, our class had a lecture from Drs. Penny and Andrew Stanway, who wrote the original Breast is Best. I breastfed my own children, became a breastfeeding counsellor and lactation consultant (IBCLC), and championed breastfeeding as a health visitor and midwife. I then worked for 14 years with the UNICEF UK Baby Friendly Initiative, teaching and supporting healthcare staff to improve standards of care for breastfeeding mothers and babies. Throughout, I gained a huge respect for babies’ abilities in relation to breastfeeding. This directly influenced my belief in their capacity to continue feeding themselves when they start solid food, which is my current focus.
Amy nails the many aspects of today’s UK society that make breastfeeding so difficult for mothers and their babies. She looks at the myriad subtle – and not-so-subtle – ways in which breastfeeding is discussed and presented, so that it comes across as something laudable in theory but unrealistic and undesirable in practice: great if you can do it, but keep it to yourself and don’t frighten the horses. She also explores the many, seemingly unrelated, notions we have about how babies should be cared for, such as where and for how long they should sleep, which are quite simply incompatible with what babies really need, and with helping breastfeeding to work. Never mind pressurising women to breastfeed – how about we just support them to do it!
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…
I got hooked on breastfeeding when, during my health visitor training, our class had a lecture from Drs. Penny and Andrew Stanway, who wrote the original Breast is Best. I breastfed my own children, became a breastfeeding counsellor and lactation consultant (IBCLC), and championed breastfeeding as a health visitor and midwife. I then worked for 14 years with the UNICEF UK Baby Friendly Initiative, teaching and supporting healthcare staff to improve standards of care for breastfeeding mothers and babies. Throughout, I gained a huge respect for babies’ abilities in relation to breastfeeding. This directly influenced my belief in their capacity to continue feeding themselves when they start solid food, which is my current focus.
Sadly, one of the many obstacles to breastfeeding lies within the healthcare system. For too long, education about how breastfeeding works has been severely lacking in the training of doctors, pharmacists, and a host of other disciplines. The result is that time and again, women who seek help – often for conditions unrelated to lactation – are given advice or care that fails to take into account their feeding choices, Many are told that they must stop breastfeeding in order for either them or their baby to receive treatment. As a pharmacist and breastfeeding counsellor, who, for years, ran the UK’s Drugs in Breastmilk helpline virtually single-handed, Wendy’s knowledge in this area is second to none. In the hands of health professionals, this book has the power to bring about huge change.
Sadly, women often feel they have no alternative but to give up breastfeeding, having been prescribed or purchased medication. In many cases, however, this is unnecessary. This book outlines the evidence base for the use of medication during breastfeeding.
Breastfeeding and Medication presents a comprehensive A to Z guide to the most frequently prescribed drugs and their safety for breastfeeding mothers. Evaluating the evidence for interventions and using a simple format for quickly identifying medications that are safe or unsafe to use, it also highlights those drugs where there is inconclusive evidence. Additional contextual information makes this the most complete…
I got hooked on breastfeeding when, during my health visitor training, our class had a lecture from Drs. Penny and Andrew Stanway, who wrote the original Breast is Best. I breastfed my own children, became a breastfeeding counsellor and lactation consultant (IBCLC), and championed breastfeeding as a health visitor and midwife. I then worked for 14 years with the UNICEF UK Baby Friendly Initiative, teaching and supporting healthcare staff to improve standards of care for breastfeeding mothers and babies. Throughout, I gained a huge respect for babies’ abilities in relation to breastfeeding. This directly influenced my belief in their capacity to continue feeding themselves when they start solid food, which is my current focus.
Kimberly writes from personal experience and from the heart. She pulls no punches. Her book covers a lot of the obstacles you’d expect – societal attitudes to breastfeeding, the formula industry, and so on – but it’s her chapter on ‘the feminist fallacy’ that really spoke to me. I’ve always been baffled by the lack of support that feminist writers have shown for breastfeeding. They talk about it as a chore, as a restriction on women’s freedom, not as something amazing that a woman’s body can do. Kimberly challenges this thinking head on, fearlessly exposing the flawed thinking that has, in the name of equality, blindly followed an agenda set by men, with the result that motherhood is devalued and breastfeeding is framed as simply an issue of ‘choice’. Her conviction provides me with the hope that we can reverse this. Brilliant.
Breastfeeding. The mere mention of it has many mothers wracked with anxiety (how will I manage with work, other kids, what if I don't make enough milk?) or guilt about not doing it (will I be hurting my child ifl 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 new-born? Oh, the controversy! And when Barbara Walters complained about the woman breastfeeding next to her on…
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