The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding; a book review for new parents ⋆ Earth and Water

I breastfed both of my children for the first year and a half of my life. I did next to no research on it beforehand. I thought it would be 2nd nature and that I’d figure it out as I got there. Yeah, I don’t recommend doing that.

Breastfeeding, though the most natural thing in the world, is not at all innate. I had a really hard time with both and as a mom and doula, I hear “failure” stories more often than I do success stories around breastfeeding.

If you plan on embarking on the journey of nursing your baby, I highly recommend this book, The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding by Le Leche League.

This is a book about the story of breastfeeding. It intrigues and reassures us in a grandmotherly way of the natural method of feeding our babies, covering both the science and the intuition that make it, indeed, an art as unique to each pair that take it on.

They keep the book peppered with personal accounts and stories to give us a sense of comfort and relatability and to soften the hardness of technical science.

The Le Leche League are careful to answer any and all questions a new mother may have from before her baby is born until the couple wean.

This book highlights the importance of support systems and resources. It’s not only a valuable resource in itself but goes so far as to ensure you have every resource they can possibly provide on all of the various branches of breastfeeding.

This book begins before labor does, detailing the lists of everything that will be needed and what to expect. It then gives us evidence on what could happen during labor and birth that could possibly make breastfeeding more difficult.

As well as suggesting things we can do to lessen the impact of the interventions that may be problematic to breastfeeding such as skin to skin and various latching techniques.

It dismisses some myths and common suggestions often heard by new mothers than make little difference like different positioning options available. If nursing is going well, positions don’t matter much. Each mother and baby will figure out a system that works best for them.

The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding meets us next over the early weeks of postpartum. What to expect in the days at the hospital and once you get home in great detail. It explains the difference between colostrum and milk and when to expect the switch over.

It covers the hormones in your milk that make both you and baby sleepy and how this ensures that plenty of rest is gotten by both. How to track input and output and be wary of the weight tracking used by doctors.

Easing common worries and obstacles, it even covers postpartum mood disorders, the baby blues, how to tell the difference and how to get help if it is needed. Again, dismissing common misconceptions and giving us evidence based information on increasing supply and surviving the newborn weeks.

Letting baby and your own instincts take the lead is the theme of the book. It’s beneficial to know the science and the techniques available to you, especially when troubleshooting, but it’s best to allow the knowledge learned to allow you to relax into the experience.

Trust in your baby, your body and the natural processes are valuable to the breastfeeding relationship and journey. Many mothers are worried about milk supply and intake but more often than not everything is normal and fine.

It moves on to cover the next few months and how to handle possible situations that may come up including traveling, teething and the four month fussies. The Le Leche Legue also makes sure to mention some things that mom may be wondering at this point in her postpartum journey like losing weight and having sex.

They then begin inching towards weaning with the beginning of solids, outlining the research backed by science on how and when introducing solids should take place.

The next section moves on to settling into life with your baby and motherhood, exploring some questions you may have at this stage in the nursing relationship as you continue to breastfeed a baby that can now get around and begin to talk. Suggestions on how to manage nursing in public and some stories to boost your confidence in doing so.

They also give us the science behind the benefits of continued nursing and detailed information on pumping and navigating the workspace for mothers who continue their career or have to be away from their baby for an extended amount of time.

Everything’s covered from what is normal and what to expect to how to navigate people and a workplace that may be less than supportive in your continued breastfeeding.

There’s a heavy amount of information on sleeping arrangements including the benefits and myths around co sleeping and some statistics to ease our minds. Guidelines on making a safe sleep space and suggestions on how to improve and troubleshoot sleeping habits that may not be ideal.

It continues to offer more information on weaning and stems out to breastfeeding scenarios involving preemies, multiples and babies with physical challenges and special needs. They continue to offer support, insisting that the Le Leche League always has their doors open and phones on if they ever need help.

A fair amount on the mechanics of breastfeeding are covered. Not only in the commonly “how does this work” area but also in the lesser known aspects of relactation and lactation without pregnancy. A fascinating chapter with information on how to do it all.

It also covers dealing with milk supply in the wake of a loss and options the mother has in the forms of drying up her supply or donating to a milk bank for other babies in need.

The last section of the book offers “Tech Support” where you can find common troubleshooting problems, a short section to help you out in your own personal journey where you can fill in the blanks and then a very helpful reference area for easy lookup of your problems as they arise.

The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding is the only breastfeeding book you’ll need. It answers all of the questions you have as well as the ones you didn’t know you had with helpful bullet point lists and easy to follow charts.

It is extremely anti-formula feeding and may make some feel insufficient if they were unable to continue their breastfeeding journey or even betrayed by the system if they, themselves were formula fed as infants.

Overall, though, this book is extremely helpful and covers all of its bases, generously offering up tons of outside resources on subjects that they couldn’t fully cover in a single book.

Tell us in the comments if this is your first breastfeeding journey or if you’ve already had an experience and how that went. If you need anything or have any questions, message me any time.