jamesmcook's Full Review: Marvin S. Eiger and Sally Wendkos Olds - The Compl...
Summary: This book is an excellent alternative to La Leche's Womanly Art of Breastfeeding. It is encyclopedically detailed in its information, and thankfully doesn't have the preachy tone of the Womanly Art.
Relevant Personal Background:
When my wife and I decided that we wanted to breastfeed our son, we needed a lot of information. After all, it's not like lactation is a topic of regular household or workplace conversation. When we asked a few friends who were parents for a book to read about breastfeeding, the unanimous response was, "try that La Leche League book!"
Why to Avoid La Leche's Womanly Art
"That La Leche's book" refers to The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding. In its day, it served the useful purpose of opening women's eyes to the benefits of breastfeeding. But times have changed, and now medical professionals and laypersons alike have come to recognize the value of breastfeeding. Unfortunately, we found the The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding to be stuck in a strident age of advocacy. The book spends chapter after chapter extolling the virtues of breastfeeding in the strongest possible language. There's no serious attention to the common social and medical problems that keep many women from breastfeeding. La Leche's dogmatic tone is so strong that we found ourselves unable to trust the book - were we being told the truth or just being fed the party line?
A Great Alternative to La Leche
This book's title is an instance of truth in advertising: The Complete Book of Breastfeeding is a complete, comprehensive book that provides practical advice on the deliberation about breastfeeding and going about breastfeeding if you decide it's the right course for you. The book is written by a useful pair: Dr. Marvin Eiger, a pediatrician and nationally-recognized authority on breastfeeding, and Sally Wendkos Olds, a well-regarded medical writer who nursed her own three children.
The book is as informative on the practice of breastfeeding as its more famous partner, The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding. My wife and I found that the non-preachy nature of The Complete Book of Breastfeeding made it a superior choice. Eiger and Olds trusted us with information from all sides of the major debates surrounding breastfeeding, so we were able to trust them back. We appreciated the sections of the book sensitively devoted to the decision to breastfeed and to the possibility that breastfeeding just might not work. With the help of this book, we were able to have a positive breastfeeding experience with our new baby.
In Sum...
In sum, The Complete Book of Breastfeeding is comprehensive and helpful without bashing its readers over the head with ideology. If we were to go through the learning process about breastfeeding all over again, we'd skip The Womanly Art and head straight for this book. This book has been an excellent resource for us as we have worked to raise our first child in a healthy and happy way.
This illustrated book provides the latest expert advice on everything a mother needs to know to about breastfeeding--from the basics of nursing to iss...More at Buy.com Marketplaces
Make the Most of your Nursing Experience Dr. Marvin Eiger, a nationally known pediatrician and breastfeeding authority, and Sally Wendkos Olds, an awa...More at Buy.com Marketplaces
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