Customer Reviews

Loving Mama: Essays on Natural Parenting and Motherhood

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I love, love, love this book. It is a collection of essays on parenting written by many different mothers and covers all topics of motherhood, including breastfeeding, childbirth, sleep issues, and fun topics like bathtime. My La Leche League leader suggested it and now I want to buy one for all of my friends. Read this book, your children will thank you. Excellent book!

I stumbled across this book at a breastfeeding center in New Jersey and I bought it. I didn't know what it was about but since I'm pregnant I wanted to read stories from mothers about their first years as parents. After reading it, everything has changed. I am now going to have a midwife instead of my ob, and I told my husband not to bother to save money for a crib - we are going to keep the baby with us in bed. I always planned on breastfeeding, but now I won't say for how long since I'll let my baby decide. And my husband, who wanted to circumcise, changed his mind after reading the story called "Sam" in the circumcision section. I think this is a book every pregnant woman should read before she has her baby. I'm happy I did.

As a new mom, people have thrown all sorts of advice my way. It can be confusing, and in an attempt to sort it all out, I turned to books. I found the Iovine's "Girlfriend's Guide" to be puckeringly sweet and not at all focused on being a mother. I found "What to Expect in the First Year" to be textbook boring and not at all useful. Then I read "LOVING MAMA" and all the essays in it, each written by a different mom who shared her personal experience, and I was so very THANKFUL. It's wonderful. It had me in tears at times, and joyful at others. I am so happy to have found this wonderful book. Can't wait for Palisi to publish a new edition with more great stories.

Such a wonderfully eclectic compilation of articles! There is something here to make me smile every day. There is such beautifully written support for breastfeeding, co-sleeping, baby wearing, attachment parenting, and more. Friends of mine who hadn't ever heard of Attachment Parenting commented about the support for their parenting choices that they found in these pages.

I wish this book had been around when I was pregnant. There are things that I have read that I would have wanted to do - and hope to do if I am blessed to have baby #2. Thanks to Tiffany Palisi, I keep learning more and more ways to be a Loving Mama!

This book is so refreshing. I ordered a copy because it sounded good and I figured that since it was written by a lot of moms, if I didn't like one's perspective, there's always someone else's (in the book). I am happy to say I loved every single essay. I've never read a book like this before. It talks about all aspects of attachment parenting and natural parenting choices, but my favorites were the birth stories. Different women having different births, all very powerful and beautiful. Thank you for writing this book, loving mamas. It will be read again and again and will never be shared. I'll have to buy copies for my friends b/c I don't want to let mine go!

If you're reading this review, buy this book! I'm no stranger to parenting books, articles, and magazines; Loving Mama, with its beautiful front cover, is quickly becoming one of my all-time favorites. It's such a warm welcome to the world of attatchment parenting that even new/expectant parents who might not have planned to breastfeed, co-sleep or even have a home birth (!) may very well be convinced to follow some of the birth and parenting philosophies found here. I encourage you to sit down with a mug of hot tea and this book during your child's next nap. You'll feel like you've just joined a nurturing, supportive, and loving mothers' group.

I've read loads of books on natural parenting and I think that this one is my favorites. I was pointed to this book by my doula, a woman who wrote for the book. It is so fabulous - like a slice of parenting heaven. I especially like the section on breastfeeding - it shows such a range. Some moms talked about why they breastfed, others about how it benefitted the whole family. The best, though, is the essay from a woman who breastfed her adopted baby. I've read some of her articles in The Wise Mom, and this one is my favorite of all of hers. I also enjoyed reading all of the essays by Abigail Dotson. I read about her nurse-in in our newspaper here in California last year. So good to hear more from her about her experiences.

I've truly enjoyed reading through the other moms' essays on parenting with true thought. The book illustrates a lot of good critical thinking and a lot of love and strength shown by the mothers it profiles. I like the way the book is organized, by subject and so that you can read a little or a lot at a time. It is a journey on "the road less travelled" in mothering that is worth taking.

I enjoyed these essays written by mothers practicing attachment parenting (AP) techniques, but I thought it was way too earnest and quite humorless.

I think I would really have enjoyed this book more if I were pregnant or a brand new mom and unfamiliar with principles of AP, so if that's you, this is definitely worth a shot. I thought I would enjoy it as a mother who had, like these women, had the joy of discovering that there was another, better, way to raise my children, but I found it to be too humorless and repetitive to be truly enjoyable. Short, two to three page, articles detail the experience of a new mother, frazzled, trying to follow traditional ideas of parenting, finding a better way, and everyone being mostly happy afterward.

What a fantastic collection of essays from an amazing group of women. Tiffany Palisi has done a wonderful job bringing together real mothers with real stories of natural parenting. A must read for any mother (or father) interested in this method.