Why Must Read Breastfeeding Made Simple: Seven Natural Laws for Nursing Mothers?

I can't give this book 5 stars because it annoyed me so many times, for valid reasons I will explain. Despite that, I must give it 4 stars because it educated me so well on breastfeeding. To explain the positive: this book is a wealth of information about breastfeeding. I know many women who stopped breastfeeding due to reasons cited in this book. Had they read this book they may well have found solutions to their problems and continued breastfeeding. I feel well-prepared to breastfeed our baby, reading this book was like doing my homework, I feel like I studied the subject well and will know what to do if any problems arise. I also feel I will know how to prevent problems from happening. After reading this book, I even feel more confident that I will succeed in my goal of breastfeeding for a year (or a year and a half) thanks to the tips and techniques in this book. The book is EXTREMELY informative, useful, my copy is dogeared and I'm sure I'll revisit it for information as I begin breastfeeding. I cannot reiterate enough times HOW MUCH I LEARNED from this book. I deeply appreciate that. So, I give 4 stars. I would have given 5 except for the following things which I disliked: 1) The authors continuously make cases for breastfeeding, in defense of breastfeeding, & reiterate (ad naseum) how bad formula is. I KNOW this. My mom breastfed me and my 4 siblings. I come from a family of breastfeeding women. I wholeheartedly believe in the extraordinary benefits of breastfeeding and plan to give our baby breast milk for health reasons. I don't like the idea of formula unless absolutely necessary, (but to you formula feeders out there, don't be offended as those are simply MY feelings, for MY self. I don't push my beliefs on others at dinner parties or on the street lol). 2) They are not into bottles at all. They seem to think bottles and breast pumps are so inferior to your breast because your baby has to be glued to your body day and night, because they need skin on skin contact blah blah blah. I know that the longer breast milk is stored in the fridge or freezer, the more it loses antibodies, but sometimes a bottle of breast milk is a help! 3) They repeatedly advise cosleeping, which is not for everyone. 4) As some other reviewers noted, there is an underlying, not-so-subtle, continuous pounding away at the need to constantly breastfeed, to constantly give give give to your baby, to be always attached, to sleep with, etc. It is rather overkill. So, you ask, why do I give 4 stars to a book that clearly bothered me and put me off so much? Because the information on breastfeeding was so excellent, I slogged through the muck in order to absorb all that information so I can put it to use for our baby's benefit. If you edited out all that biased, repetitive, sometimes far-fetched material, you would be left with a fine compilation of comprehensive, detailed, useful, and obviously expert advice. I can imagine many a mother saved by reading a paragraph in the book. There are countless gems of advice. It was well worth the read. UPDATE: I have now been exclusively breastfeeding our baby since she was born, over 6 months ago. We started introducing solids at 6 months (as recommended by the World Health Organization) but she's not too interested in solids yet. Which is ok. Breastfeeding is going great and she's absolutely thriving, mentally, physically, and emotionally. The advice and knowledge from this book has been extremely helpful. Again, the book did help me a few times when we were confused about quantities, supply changing, what was healthy, what was normal... tips and pointers, and also, holy COW! Cluster feeding, WOW, the book helped me stay steady during those crazy cluster-feeding times, when we called her a "milk-a-holic" so the book was a huge help, despite the nutty stuff in the book that I mentioned. I also helped me avert problems when she had a bout with jaundice at birth and they tried to get us to give her formula, but I knew from the book that it could cause problems so I insisted on them giving me a hospital pump and I pumped and fed her colustrum with perfect success, so she was able to just breastfeed and I maintained my milk supply. My friend didn't know to do that, and the same thing happened to her in the hospital and it messed up the breastfeeding relationship and despite her devoted efforts, her supply was lowered and she has had to supplement breast milk with formula ever since, which was problematic as her little one didn't tolerate ANY formula well, had stomachaches and vomited up even the most expensive, organic stuff on the market, but she doesn't have enough breastmilk - would you believe, I was able to donate some of my extra milk to her baby - what an honor to be able to help out. Also my baby had a minor surgery at age 3 weeks and was to be separated from us during the operation and unable to eat for 12 hours but thanks to this book, I knew to demand a pump to maintain supply and prevent engorgement. This book also helped me prevent any clogged ducts, pain, chapped nipples (hint - use breast milk - no need for the fancy creams I was given, just dabbing some breast milk on after each nursing worked better). So, 4 stars for immense value and dearth of information. 1 star deducted for annoying, far-fetched, extreme views, and repetition. PS: be advised there is nothing "simple" in this book, other than the word "simple" in the title. It is like a text book on breast feeding, and it made me aware how much more complicated breast feeding is than I ever imagined! But it gets easier and easier and it makes our baby so happy and comforted! So... Good luck to all you families out there, in feeding your sweet babies (: UPDATE 4 years later... So... I nursed my first baby for a long time, very successfully thanks to this book, and she has been such a healthy little girl. Now one month ago I gave birth to our second child. I pulled out all my old baby books, including this one, to review. I thought it was silly of me, as I was now a breastfeeding "pro" having done it before very successfully... but would you believe this book was - once again - a lifesaver?! Turns out I was wrong to think I had nothing else to learn. After all, not all babies are alike so why should my second nurse like my first? And of course I forgot what newborns are like! In the hospital, THIS baby kept crying. Jeez, her sister was so calm and quiet and sleepy, in fact daughter #1 got jaundice because she wasn't initially nursing enough. So I didn't understand why this baby kept crying, the nurses said to nurse her once every 2 to 3 hours, which I was certainly doing... it wasn't until my sister called from across the country and heard her over the phone and said, "Ooooh I remember THAT cry from when my kids were babies! That's the HUNGRY cry!" Her kids are in college lol. And I thought, say what?!?! They SAID feed her every 2 to 3 hours I've fed her much more, how COULD she be hungry? I was sure something was wrong or she was just a fussy baby... But nope, turned out she just wanted to nurse a LOT! I realized I was listening to the nurse (who was not a lactation expert) and then learned that even a newborn can clusterfeed (who knew?!). Then this baby, (unlike my first) had a bit more trouble latching on the first couple of weeks, I returned to this book and it gave me the perfect advice and I got the little one to latch on well and that stopped my physical discomfort and it stopped the baby's (and my own) frustration! Then she was clusterfeeding again, and I realized, from re-reading this book, to just roll with it. After all, this baby didn't get jaundice, so I realized all her feeding in the hospital and all along was just getting my supply up to maximum. Anyway, this book was a great help and I will adjust my review up to 5 stars. I had originally given it only 4 because I disagreed with some of the beliefs / ideologies of the authors. And also... over the past few years, I have heard several moms who wanted to nurse tell me about problems with their low supply, or tell me their baby was batting the breast so they thought he was frustrated so they decided to stop nursing and just do formula, or that they had too strong a let down so they had to exclusively pump for the baby which then made their supply dwindle, or the moms who were told to give formula in the hospital which then dwindled their supply... or moms who didn't believe their baby was "getting enough" so they thought bottles were a better way to gauge, so they could see how many ounces they were getting, (the books explains the whole concept of nursing by the clock or by measurements is really a modern construct) or - here's a gem, about breast storage capacity... who knew about that? So many stories and when I think about it, this book addresses all those problems I've heard that made nursing hard (or impossible) for my mom friends, and these were moms who genuinely wanted to nurse and tried very hard to. Too bad they didn't have this book, because it would have made life easier for them. I bought this book used on amazon 5 years ago and it was one of the best purchases I could have made as a new mom and now a second time mama. I mean, all the cute baby gear is fun and sweet, don't get me wrong, the cute nursing tops and the maternity clothes and the cute baby clothes and toys but really at the end of the day, what was top priority to me is my baby's health and feeding her well, and this book helped me both times. So, if you're on the fence, buy this book and even if you don't agree with ALL the author's philosophies or whatnot, that's OK, but they know their sh*t when it comes to breastfeeding baby, so take what nuggets of wisdom you need from it and leave whatever you don't want. Blessings to you and your baby...