Nursing Mother, Working Mother, Revised Edition [Paperback]

Gale Pryor (Author), Kathleen Huggins (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 15, 2007

The World Health Organization, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and other authorities on maternal-infant health all recommend breastfeeding exclusively for the first six months of a baby s life and continued breastfeeding through one to two years of age (or for as long as mother and baby desire). For working mothers of infants (more than half of all new mothers) meeting this goal can be challenging. The newly updated Nursing Mother, Working Mother offers you practical and reassuring advice on everything from choosing the right pump in every situation, to securing lactation space and respect at the workplace, to instructing childcare providers on feeding pumped breast milk, to continuing breastfeeding even when your job requires business travel. It also includes information on changes in workplace laws. As a breastfeeding mother, you need guidance and support to combine breastfeeding with your working life, and the reassuring and informative revised edition of Nursing Mother, Working Mother assists you at every step.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Praise for the first edition: A highly practical yet philosophical book that will empower mothers. --Library Journal

Praise for the first edition: Full of practical hints on overcoming social and workplace obstacles to breastfeeding. --Fit Pregnancy

Praise for the first edition: A book that will prove extremely useful to women experiencing frequent separations from their breastfed babies...provides a wealth of knowledge on the practical aspects of breastfeeding. --New Beginnings

About the Author

Gale Pryor is a science writer and editor specializing in health and development. Her work has appeared in numerous parenting magazines and corporate and healthcare communications. She is the co-author, with her mother, Karen Pryor, of the best-selling Nursing Your Baby, now in its fourth edition. Kathleen Huggins, R.N., M.S., is the best-selling author of The Nursing Mother s Companion and The Expectant Parents Companion, and co-author of The Nursing Mother's Guide to Weaning. She is a registered nurse, a board-certified lactation consultant, and owner of the maternity shop Simply Mama.

Product Details

• Paperback: 237 pages
• Publisher: The Harvard Common Press; Revised edition (April 15, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1558323317
• ISBN-13: 978-1558323315
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.1 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #77,705 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

113 of 120 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Some good info and some inappropriate value judgments, June 6, 2007

By 

GadgetChick - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Nursing Mother, Working Mother, Revised Edition (Paperback)

I bought this book hoping to put it in my company's pumping room as a resource for pumping moms at my company. After I read it, I decided not to put it in the pumping room. Although there is some good information in this book, unfortunately the tone of most of it made me uncomfortable, and in some places offended me. I didn't want other working and nursing moms at my company to feel judged by the information in this book. Being a working and nursing mom is hard enough without the kinds of value judgments the authors make.

The main problem with this book is that like many breastfeeding manuals, it basically contends that good mothering begins and ends with breastfeeding on demand for as long as possible. Other components of mothering - having the energy to engage in constructive play with your child, having the emotional resources to provide nurturing, etc. get short shrift. If you don't continue to nurse, you are not giving your baby the best, and it's better to sacrifice your own mental well-being than to give up nursing. The previous reviewer mentioned the suggestion to encourage your child to nurse more at night if they drop nursing sessions during the day - in this, as in pretty much every other manual currently recommended, the mom's need for sleep is trumped absolutely by the need to continue breastfeeding. It doesn't seem to matter that lack of sleep can contribute to depression, impaired cognition and decision-making, and result in problems at work, with a marriage, etc. The authors' message is, basically, get used to not sleeping; breastfeeding is more important. I don't think that message serves any mom, not just working moms, well. I have a friend who nearly drove off the road out of sleep deprivation, with her baby in the backseat. She had been nursing her baby, a chronic reverse-cycler, for 10 months and was impaired in pretty much everything she did. She elected to night-wean her daughter, but kept breast-feeding mornings, evenings, and during the day on weekends. After the night weaning not only did she and her husband feel better, her baby was much less irritable. They continued nursing until her daughter self-weaned just after her second birthday. Night weaning is something people with older babies should consider if their overnight nursing situation is not working, but that idea is dismissed in this book.

There's also a very questionable section where the authors talk about choosing not to go back to work and quote a woman who says that she found a way to make staying home work. That's great, but I would imagine anyone reading this book is way past the point of being able to make a decision to stay home or not. To me this section was completely unnecessary in a book that is, ostensibly, about combining working and nursing.

Overall the book has some valuable info but the hit-you-over-the-head moralizing is too much. I would really love to find a breastfeeding manual that deals with logistics and problem-solving without making it seem like breastfeeding is the end-all-be-all of mothering or guilting women who may not want to nurse until a child is in preschool. I haven't found one yet, - this book definitely isn't it. I was disappointed, and elected to put some neutral information about pumping, milk storage, continuing nursing from a state agency in our pumping room rather than this book. I know first-hand how hard it is to combine working and nursing - I don't want my fellow nursing coworkers to have anything or anyone pile any more guilt on them than they're already piling on themselves. I hope the next edition of the book will focus more on positivity and useful information and focus less on making inappropriate value judgments.

23 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not what I had hoped it would be, May 16, 2007

By 

M. Clarady - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Nursing Mother, Working Mother, Revised Edition (Paperback)

I had really looked forward to reading this book and was disappointed, especially after reading so many rave reviews. My 6-month old has recently started rejecting his bottles at daycare, and at the same time my supply has dropped dramatically. I understand that he wants to bond with me, but he is not a good co-sleeper (wakes up continually to play) and I don't have a choice about working or flexible hours. I had to wonder what the authors were smoking when they recommeded that I be flattered by this and encourage him to swap his day/night eating habits.

21 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Aimed for the white-collar feminist, March 12, 2009

By 

L. Tumminello "Laura" (South Jersey, United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Nursing Mother, Working Mother, Revised Edition (Paperback)

I'm glad I borrowed this book and did not spend money on it. This book is too preachy on feminist issues... it spends too much time talking about requesting employer accommodations. This book aims itself at the white collar feminist. If you are a single mom or a blue collar married mother, then this book skips you. There are women who work out of economic necessity. This book forgets that. It assumes everyone works 9-5 in an office and can take at least a two month maternity leave. For those of us working poor who could not afford a maternity leave and those who work non-traditional hours, this book isn't worth the paper it is written on. Also, the book is printed in blue font, which is hard on the eyes. There is more helpful information in the medalla brochure that comes with the pump than in this book.