Customer Reviews

Mother Food for Breastfeeding Mothers

5 star:		(28)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

It's been over a decade since I've nursed and this topic is a slightly on the edge of my writing and consulting areas so why did I buy the book? I ran across the title accidentally and guess I was mostly interested in how someone could write a whole text about fenugreek, a few other herbs, and a couple of drugs. Maybe I just wanted to see if the book was just silliness. Well, zowie, even if you've been consulting in lactation for many years and read "all" the books, there's a multitude of interesting and juicy meat in this book (and there's a lot more than "a few other herbs"). She covers a wide array of pertinent topics, with an excellent understanding of the current spectrum of maternal, lactation professional, and science knowledge (each of which often seem to have large gaps between them), and adds lots of insightful and fun historic and anthropologic information along the way.

She's raised my own consciousness in my own favorite directions: just how intimately and distinctly our food choices affect us.

Something to bring to the beach for pleasure reading if you have ANY interest in infant feeding; really. A must-read for lactation professionals, and for breastfeeding mothers with any challenges at all. My dream to see pediatricians read.

Linda Folden Palmer, DC, author of "Baby Matters" and "The Baby Bond" The Baby Bond: The New Science Behind What's Really Important When Caring for Your Baby

As one of the unlucky few with a true breasmilk supply issue, one that resulted in my first child being formula fed, I am thrilled to have discovered this book. It is just filled from cover to cover with useful information about herbs and foods to increase supply. Including actual methods of preparation and recipes. And, similarly, what to avoid. It is well researched and easy (and enjoyable) for the average person to read. The remedies recommended have made the difference between success and failure in feeding my new baby. I just can't recommend it enough. Thank you Hilary!

As a mother and medical writer, I highly recommend this fascinating book. It addresses a wide range of issues, but it is also a good read, and easy to understand. It is a great resource for any breastfeeding mother and a useful reference book for health workers such as midwives, breastfeeding councellors and doctors.

There is extensive information on foods and herbs that are used in different cultures to support a mothers milk production (galactagogues) and general health. A lot of the foods you will find already in your kitchen. This book is particularly useful if you have concerns over your milk supply (whether you are nursing or pumping) and looks at oversupply as well as undersupply, and at supply problems that are less well known, such as premenstrual reduction of milk production. There are numerous tips and recipes that can help you regulate your milk supply.

Other problems that also face nursing mothers are addressed (e.g. weightgain, post natal depression, blocked milk ducts, thrush and mastitis) along with appropriate dietary measures, foods, herbs and supplements for their treatment. More general problems of colds, allergies, fatigue and asthma are also discussed. There are also sections which describe foods and herbs (both to take and to avoid) that are useful in treating colic and reflux in your baby. The book has a comprehensive contents page and is clearly indexed so it is quick to find the information you need. The book is well referenced with a listing including peer-reviewed literature and book titles - great if you want to do some further reading.

As a mother who had some undersupply problems following a breast abscess, I can say that the information contained in this book very possibly saved my nursing relationship with my daughter. I would strongly recommend this book to any woman who is breastfeeding, thinking about breastfeeding or pumping milk for her baby.

Many women who experience the natural waxing and waning of breastmilk feel that they must be drying up and needlesly wean their babies too early. Hilary Jacobson shows how foods and herbs can increase milk production through natural cyclic changes as well as those brought about by medication, illness and stress. She doesn't simply present lists of galactogues (breatmilk enhancing foods and herbs) she talks about the energetics of them. For instance nigella seeds, used in the Mideast to enhance breastmilk, may be too warming for regular consumption unless a woman runs cold, and fennel may be a better choice. She discusses ways of determining what allergens may go through the breastmilk and bother the baby- even showing how they can be detected prenatally. Finally she covers foods that mother the mother. This is an excellent resource and I have no trouble recommending it to my patients.

Finally, we have a well researched, reliable, easy to understand book on this very important but sorely understudied topic: how mothers can create healthy babies and feel better by using the right foods and herbs. This book is a "must read" book for all pregnant and breastfeeding mothers along with their health care providers.
It is clearly evident by the high quality and thorough research that Mrs. Jacobson has spent many, many years researching and synthezing this important and vital imformation. She does an excellent job at presenting this helpful information in an easy to understand manner. I love all of the helpful and yummy recipes sprinkled throughout the book. Mrs. Jacobson has provided information on how to avoid allergies, how to lower a mother's toxic load, how to prevent detoxification while breastfeeding, how to prevent infant colic, postpartum depression, anemia, insulin resistance, food cravings and food addictions along with how to promote and create a healthy milk supply. Very practical information from sources all over the world from many cultures and throughout the millenia is provided on how to create healthy mothers and healthy babies through the food a mother eats. I especially enjoyed reading the sections of how classical medical systems around the world such as Ayurvedic and Middle Eastern countries treat milk supply challenges. But the most valuable information I have been able to recieve from Mother Food, is the abundant information on herbal and lactogenic cooking tips for mothers to increase their milk supply.
As an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant for who has worked with breastfeeding mothers for over 25 years, I have been longing to have a book like this to offer as a referral to my patients. All mothers want to provide the best quality milk to their babies and yet thousands and thousands of mothers struggle with their milk supply. Now with Mother Food, health care providers along with pregnant and breastfeeding mothers can obtain reliable, thoroughly researched information on this topic. Thank you, Hilary Jacobson!
With my doctorate in Natural Health, my main focus of research is on foods and herbs that create a healthy milk supply. It is very difficult to find any books that contain this kind of information and as reliable as Mrs. Jacobson's.
I am convinced Mother Food is a book that needs to be on the kitchen and library book shelves of every pregnant and breastfeeding mother as well as every health care provider who counsels and cares for these women. I am thankful to finally have a reliable information source for myself and for my pregnant and breastfeeding clients. Kudos to Mrs. Jacobson for this thorough,well researched but easy to understand book!

Mother Food has been an invaluable tool for me as a nursing mother. It is very well written and it is fun to read. Ms. Jacobson's style of prose is warm and inviting, and her commentary is both intelligent and insightful.
The information on various health issues is fascinating, as is the use of lactogenic foods and herbs in different cultures, but what is most important to me are the recipes, and the plethora of information on lactogenic foods, beverages and herbs, most of which are in your kitchen already.
I regret that I did not have this wonderful resource available to me when I was attempting to nurse my first two babies. As one of those rare mothers who face having persistent low milk supply, I was unsuccessful in exclusively breastfeeding my first two babies. But thanks to Mother Food I have been able to exclusively breastfeed my third baby for the first three months of her life and we are still going strong!
Thank you, Ms. Jacobson, for providing pregnant, recently postpartum and nursing women with such a useful compendium of information.

Mother-Food is an amazing book! The author addresses a wide variety of breastfeeding issues in a caring, nurturing, and informative manner. Ms. Jacobson has managed to compile generations of women's wisdom from around the world regarding lactation into one book. The book is especially helpful on foods and herbs that can help with the quality and
supply of a mother's milk. The recipes are delicious, and make it fun to watch both what I eat, and the kitchen herbs I use to increase my milk supply for my baby. This book really helped me increase my milk supply. I particularly appreciated the easy conversational tone of the writing and the historical significance of various cultural customs and practices.
Highly recommended for every breastfeeding mom!!

This book is outstanding. I had originally bought "Eat Well, Lose Weight, While Breastfeeding" and was so disappointed, I sent it back to Amazon. Then I found "Mother Food." I can't tell you what a valuable resource this has been for me. It has a very international feel (the author is Swiss) because it references cultures from all over the world and connects you with moms from ever corner of the globe on what works best for producing the highest quality of breastmilk for your baby. The best recipe in the book is for the "green drink." It's a blend of raw fruit and vegetable juices that increases the quantity and quality of your breastmilk amazingly. I make this drink everyday and since then have been able to pump a full 5 oz more milk each day. I have looked and felt so much better since beginning some of the routines described in this book and my baby has been much happier and had hardly any colic! You absolutely MUST buy this book.

I bought this book because I am having low milk supply issues - and it is fascinating! The book gives a plethora of information about how to increase milk supply and improve the quality of breast milk through diet and herbal supplements. I found the background information on how diet affects milk production to be very interesting - especially the section on good fats vs. bad fats. Much of the information in this book is just plain good nutrition advice that everyone can benefit from - whether you are lactating or not! I also can't wait to try out the recipes included in the book. I highly recommend this book to mothers, and I wish that I had it when I was pregnant or before so I could have maximized the recommendations for breastfeeding success.

This is a great resource for first-time breastfeeding moms. I had no idea when I started nursing how much what I eat and drink affects my little one. This helped me decide what to eliminate out of my diet, and what to add to be beneficial to my daughter & help her upset tummy. This book even includes information about "good foods" that we have grown up with that are not good at all -- for example, how harmful our milk, milk products, and beef are since our cows are constantly injected with growth hormones and antibiotics that pass into our systems... and into our breastfed little ones.