The Breastfeeding Book

The other day I bought The Breastfeeding Book by Martha Sears, R.N. and William Sears, M.D.** and it is an amazing book! If you plan to breastfeed at all in your life I highly suggest this book... There's tons of great info in it.

Anyway, I bought it for a couple reasons.

1. I plan to do all the research on breastfeeding as I can this time around. I WILL be successful at breastfeeding with the new baby. I plan to do whatever it takes to keep up my milk supply and to breastfeed for as long as possible. Well, maybe not as long as possible, but for as long as we both mutually desire to do so.


2. I kinda wanted to figure out what went wrong with breastfeeding Camron. Good 'ol Aunt Flo returned at 6 weeks postpartum which is very unusual with an exclusively breastfed baby. My milk supply had almost completely diminished by the time Camron was 5 months old and I had no idea since I hadn't pumped at all other than when we were still in the hospital. This book helped me figure out what went wrong! Since he was in the NICU for the first week of his life they were supplementing with BOTTLES... Meanwhile I was pumping to get my supply going. When I got him home my mom helped me to get him latched on to BF. It took about 24 hours to wean him from a bottle, but in doing that I think he had nipple confusion... He was so used to the bottle by this time that when he was latching on to my breast he was sucking like it was a rubber bottle nipple. I had no idea. Now I've come to realize that it's NOT supposed to hurt when they latch on. If it does you should get help.... I had no clue. Eventually it stopped hurting, but I feel the damage had been done. Camron wasn't getting to the milk sinuses which made it difficult to get all the milk. Eventually my milk supply kept going down and down and down... Poor Camron. I feel so bad about it. BUT now I know better thanks to this wonderful book! ... And Camron is now a happy, healthy (almost) 17 month old, with only a few minor set backs.


3. My sister is trying to breastfeed. She had a rough start and didn't seem too motivated. She would rather pump the milk and bottle feed. I can see THAT lasting only about a month at the most before she switches to formula. So I've been giving her tips on what she can do.. with the advice given in this book.

**Please note that this book probably isn't for everyone. The book's authors strongly suggest co-sleeping, babywearing, cue-feeding (feeding on demand), not using pacifiers and extended breastfeeding all throughout the book. While I strongly believe in the many benefits of all these, I know this type of parenting is not for everyone. Despite all of these things I just listed it's still a good read for anyone who is going to breastfeed. There's lots of info on getting started, how to get baby to latch on, different positions, nutrition during BFing, exercise... and tons more great info.