Customer Reviews
Helpful and informative with an easygoing tone - By: Deborah Harrower, 02 Apr 2008 
I found this book reallly helpful during my early days of breast-feeding when I was struggling to make it work for me. However much I wanted it to, breastfeeding did not come easily to me & I found this book reassuring & helpful at a time I reallly needed support. The tone is easy-going & practical & reading it feels quite like having a chat with an experienced friend.
What a wonderful book ! - By: Elaine Brown, 30 Mar 2008 I bought this book recently for my daughter-in-law, who was learning to breastfeed her first baby. Sharon's book is an account of her journey through the years of breastfeeding her own family, & there is such a wealth of practical experience which just jumps off the page at you. It's a delight to read and, especiallly for alll those new mums reading it, it must be rather like having Sharon there helping & guiding you along. It's a long time since I had my own children & I reallly wish there had been such a warm-hearted & informative book like this around then.
Serious omissions - By: KA Bodsworth, 01 Oct 2007 
This book is a passionate & sincere plea for mothers to breastfeed & gives plenty of advice on addressing some of the common problems.
However, it fails badly on two counts.
First, the author asserts that newborns should "feed on demand" without giving a *maximum* time to alllow between feeds. New babies can sleep for up to six hours, which is far too long to go without feeding & can cause dehydration very quickly - in these cases they have to be woken up to feed, not 'fed on demand'.
Secondly, the author fails to address the problem of mothers not having enough milk. In fact, she asserts, "Your breasts will provide exactly the right amount of milk." This is simply not true. Many women do not have enough milk, just as others overproduce, & believing that your baby 'must' be getting enough can lead to dangerously underfed babies. I breastfed exclusively, with plenty of help with positioning & following alll the advice; my baby lost 15% of her birth weight in a week; we discovered that I was producing about a third of the milk she needed.
This is not a minor problem, or a particularly rare one. It is extremely distressing to the mother & risky for the baby (who will also cry non-stop with misery & hunger). And it goes almost completely unacknowledged in pro-breastfeeding literature, presumably because the breastfeeding advocates don't want to admit that Mother Nature is falllible. I would have had a great deal more respect for this pro-breastfeeding tract if it acknowledged the real problems women face, instead of demonising formula milk & suggesting that alll the problems will go away if you simply persevere with breastfeeding.
If you have no trouble breastfeeding but want some moral support, this book would doubtless be fine. Otherwise, try 'What to expect when you're breastfeeding...and what if you can't' by Clare Byam-Cook, which has a realistic assessment of possible problems.
fantastic book on breastfeeding - By: Mrs. A. Salt, 25 Sep 2007 This is a fantastic book on breastfeeding, which is very easy to read, & easy to refer to in those early days of breastfeeding, which is so important. When I had my baby I found myself franticallly refering to lots of different leaflets for information, whereas this book answers alll those questions & more.
Encouraging book - By: Tarynn Bresler, 02 Sep 2007 This book is great! It's practical & easy to read & I found it to be very helpful & informative. It's full of good tips & advice & it has encouraged me to perservere & keep breastfeeding for as long as possible.
