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Honestly this book deserves zero stars- whatever useful breastfeeding info contained here can be found in less patronizing books. I am now 8 months into breastfeeding and it's going great. And it was tough. But you know why? Because newborns are kinda dumb and don't know to eat. Ivengar SR, Walker WA, 2012. J Pediatr Gastroenterol Nutr. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22684347
I thought maybe things would look up when we actually switched to the topic they're supposedly experts in. Instead, I found the authors advocating for a number of controversial things NOT supported by the medical community at large, including co-sleeping. Oh, and also leaving your new infant ON THE SIDE OF YOUR BED during intercourse... Nope, nothing risky about that! Many LLLGB Leaders are active in their communities helping to ensure quality breastfeeding support is available to mothers. Many Leaders sit on: Infant Feeding Strategy Groups, Breastfeeding Local Implementation Groups, and Maternity Voices Partnerships. There are no citations / scientific evidence for any assertions. Statements that are clearly anecdotes or sweeping generalizations are presented as facts.
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LLLGB have representation on UNICEF’s National Scoping Project for mother-to-mother support groups and UNICEF’s BFIcommittee; Our Professional Liasion Department and Panel of Professional Advisors enable our Leaders to investigate more complex breastfeeding issues.
LLLGB is not a pressure group. We strive to offer families accurate, evidence-based information so that they can make informed decisions that feel right for themselves and their child. We support you to achieve your nursing goals, whatever they may be, for example breastfeeding for one week, combi feeding, or exclusively expressing. LLLGB supports the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC). We believe that breastfeeding is an integral part of ensuring the health and wellbeing of all children. Nursing special-needs, premies, multiples, and adopted babies – and how to thrive no matter what curveball life throws.By choosing to buy from LLLGB Shop you can have the satisfaction of helping to support LLLGB since any profits generated go direct to the charity to support our work. Recommended reads
The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding is written and published by LLL International. It combines the practical experiences of generations of breastfeeding mothers with up-to-date research and comprehensive information about the normal course of breastfeeding. There is a brilliant index that makes it easy to use. This critical attitude that the authors hold towards anything they disagree with or that they deem against their strictly natural, holistic approach was honestly offensive. Breastfeeding may be natural and how our bodies were designed, but circumstances exist where it is. Not. Possible. Example: My sister adopted a 7 month old. She didn't HAVE the option to breastfeed her son. Does that make her any less of a mother, or her son any less attached to her? OF COURSE NOT. But you would not feel that way after reading this book. On the contrary, the authors make any woman who could not exclusively breastfeed for at least two years feel completely ostracized and insufficient. And I'm sorry, but that is 100% NOT how it should be. It is NEVER okay to mom-shame like that. Every woman and every baby is different, has different needs, different issues, and different circumstances. Those who deviate - willingly or from necessity - from the authors' viewpoints are not any less than those who follow them strictly.
The 9th edition will be a single book written in American English with a global audience in mind. LLLI will work on making translations available in our other five official languages as soon as practically possible. They are Chinese, French, German, Japanese and Spanish. THE ART OF BREASTFEEDING
All books available in our Group Libraries or sold in LLLGB Shop have been reviewed and approved by LLLGB to ensure they contain accurate information and are a good fit with our philosophy of mothering through breastfeeding.
From infancy on, children need loving guidance which reflects acceptance of their capabilities and sensitivity to their feelings. The entirety of chapter 2 on labor describes how natural childbirth is an amazing miracle that you will cherish forever, how obstetricians and hospitals are the enemy, how everything will be magically wonderful as long as you do it naturally, and all problems with birth and breastfeeding stem from any medical procedures that you allowed to happen, which are always referred to as "interventions." In maybe a few places, they concede that some of these interventions may be necessary for those poor souls who have high-risk pregnancies though these women should still fight tooth and nail to do everything naturally. It handily glosses over the risk of, you know, death, and how an intervention might prevent it. The other reason is that, though I definitely agree that breast is best and I'm all in for exclusive breastfeeding the first six months and to the right of women to breastfeed their babies for as long as they want, the book was still *too* in my face about it. Like, look. You are in the hospital. Perhaps, like me, you ended up having a c-section after labor failed to progress and there was fetal distress and you cried because this was not what you wanted and maybe no one was on board with the whole breast crawl in the operating room and maybe you were exhausted and in pain because you are resistant to painkillers and you are trying to have the baby latch and he just doesn't know how and you don't know how because for all the photos and youtube videos in the world you have only two hands and how exactly do you cup your breast with the c-hold and bring your baby to the breast while keeping his mouth open and positioning and all that shit that later comes super easy? And you cry. And the nurse asks if you want a bottle of formula. You know what? IT'S NOT THE END OF THE WORLD. Yes yes nipple confusion and colostrum and all that. My milk didn't come in for about a day and a half and I was offering the baby the breast so if there was colostrum coming out he was having it, but it was also sweltering hot and I kept going through water bottles and this tiny human was having only drops of liquid. I was going mad. In part, with guilt. For offering him a bottle after half an hour of clumsy breast latching. The book did a good job of making me feel like shit (along with a few unhelpful visitors because BREAST BREAST ONLY BREAST DON'T OFFER ANYTHING ELSE) but not much helping. I think it has plenty of great advice, but I could have used a book that told me to calm down and do what I could instead of parroting the same things with these mom-stories confirming that YES BREAST IS BEST BREAST IS BEST BREAST BREAST. Tips for going on a trip without your baby...JUST KIDDING WTF is wrong with your why would you leave your baby for a moment? Keep that tit out and feet barefoot ma'am.
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