Ina May's Guide to Breastfeeding [Paperback]

Ina May Gaskin (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 29, 2009

Everything you need to know to make breastfeeding a joyful, natural, and richly fulfilling experience for both you and your baby

Drawing on her decades of experience in caring for pregnant women, mothers, and babies, Ina May Gaskin explores the health and psychological benefits of breastfeeding and gives you invaluable practical advice that will help you nurse your baby in the most fulfilling way possible. Inside you’ll find answers to virtually every question you have on breastfeeding, including topics such as
•the benefits of breastfeeding
•nursing challenges
•pumps and other nursing products
•sleeping arrangements
•nursing and work
•medications
•nursing multiples
•weaning
•sick babies
•nipplephobia, and much more

Ina May's Guide to Breastfeeding is filled with helpful advice, medical facts, and real-life stories that will help you understand how and why breastfeeding works and how you can use it to more deeply connect with your baby and your own body. Whether you’re planning to nurse for the first time or are looking for the latest, most up-to-date expert advice available, you couldn’t hope to find a better guide than Ina May.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Ina May Gaskin is an international treasure. Her new guide to breastfeeding is the best thing ever written on the subject. A must-have for all pregnant women interested in the best start for their babies." —Christiane Northrup, M.D., Author of Women' s Bodies, Women's Wisdom and The Wisdom of Menopause

"This book is all we've come to expect of Ina May Gaskin—warm, wise, solidly based in real experiences, and sensitive to the needs and lives of women in all their complexity. It's the only breastfeeding book you'll need."—Barbara Katz Rothman and Wendy Simonds, authors of Laboring On

"Simply put, midwife Ina May Gaskin is the most important person in maternity care in North America, bar none."—Marsden Wagner, M.D., M.S., former Director of Women' s and Children's Health, World Health Organization

"Breastfeeding is one of life' s greatest joys. And there is no better guide to have at your side than the legendary Ina May!"—Harvey Karp, M.D., author of The Happiest Baby on the Block and creator of the DVD

"Ina May Gaskin's words of wisdom are a gift to all women. Ina May's Guide to Breastfeeding is the perfect informative companion to Spiritual Midwifery and Ina May's Guide to Childbirth. All of them hold a treasured place in my library and should, no doubt, be part of yours."—Ricki Lake, coauthor of Your Best Birth and cocreator of the documentary The Business of Being Born

"Eons of accumulated feminine wisdom, having been muddled and dispersed by modern medical practice, have become sadly unavailable to today's woman. In this and each of her books, Ms. Gaskin, one of the world's foremost scholars of such wisdom, puts it concisely and lovingly back into our hands. Ina May's Guide to Breastfeeding is the perfect gift for any pregnant woman. It is like having the best childbirth and lactation consultant right there at your bedside. And for non-pregnant women and men alike, may it be viewed as the seminal feminist text that it is, and may the re-empowerment of women with respect to childbirth be seen as central to the work of feminism, and indeed the cause of humanity, in the 21st century." —Ani DiFranco
 
 

About the Author

Ina May Gaskin, certified professional midwife, has been a midwife for more than thirty years at The Farm Midwifery Center at The Farm, in Summertown, Tennessee.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Bantam (September 29, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0553384295
• ISBN-13: 978-0553384291
• Product Dimensions: 6 x 0.8 x 9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (22 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #11,521 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #42 in Books > Health, Fitness & Dieting > Personal Health > Women's Health > Pregnancy & Childbirth

More About the Author

Ina May Gaskin is founder and director of the Farm Midwifery Center, located near Summertown, Tennessee. She has lectured all over the world at midwifery conferences and at medical schools, both to students and to faculty. The Farm is noted for its low rates of intervention, morbidity and mortality. Recently selected as a Visiting Fellow at Morse College of Yale University, Ina May also teaches midwifery, writes books and articles for medical journals and edits her quarterly journal, The Birth Gazette.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing Book! A True Must-Read!, September 29, 2009

By 

Maria "loving mama" (new york) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Ina May's Guide to Breastfeeding (Paperback)

Ina May Gaskin has done it again. Full of information and insight, this page-turner of a book is a must-read. What a great baby shower gift! The book covers everything from the basics of breastfeeding to sleeping arrangements, to nursing twins, to what to do when babies get sick, to weaning, to eradicating nipplephobia and creating a breastfeeding culture. The appendices and resources at the end are also extremely helpful.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A slightly different perspective, April 30, 2010

By 

Margaret A. Lyman (Denver, NC) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Ina May's Guide to Breastfeeding (Paperback)

Books about breastfeeding tend to be about the same thing - benefits, techniques, trouble-shooting. While Ina May's covers these, the devotes a short chapter to benefits, another short chapter on technique (though this has slightly different advice than others') and she does cover problems. Within the normal chapters, she does give tips and hints that I haven't seen in other books. The last three chapters also cover cultural issues that other books don't cover (Wet nursing, nipplephobia, and BFing culture). It's going right to the top of my list of books about nursing.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful as expected, December 15, 2009

By 

M. Yap (CA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Ina May's Guide to Breastfeeding (Paperback)

Nothing but the best from Ina May Gaskin. This book is just as expected. Lots of very useful practical information and soul supporting words for the mother to be, mother currently nursing, and the birth professional. I am a mother and birth doula and I really enjoy this book. A great gift for the expecting mother in your life would be both books: Ina May's Guide to Childbirth book and Ina May's Guide to Breastfeeding.