The Milk Memos: How Real Moms Learned to Mix Business with Babies-and How You Can, Too [Paperback]

Cate Colburn-Smith (Author), Andrea Serrette (Author)

Book Description

Release date: March 15, 2007

This one-of-a-kind guide to balancing motherhood and work is based on actual journals kept by a group of IBM women during their visits to the company's employee lactation room.

It all began when IBM manager Cate Colburn-Smith sat down in the company's employee lactation room, shed a few silent tears, and wrote the following on a paper towel: I'm a new mom and today is my first day back at work. Is anyone else using this room?

Right away women responded, and the paper towel was eventually replaced by a series of notebooks, in which women offered one another advice and support on juggling work and a newborn. Based on the original notebooks, The Milk Memos is a heartwarming, encouraging (and often hilarious!) guide to working motherhood.

It's one of the most existential moments any woman will face: sitting in a small room tucked away in the bowels of your company, pumping breast milk for a child so close to your heart-yet, at that moment, so far away. The Milk Memos records the voices of mothers who, while struggling with the difficulties of blending their two lives, prove that women don't have to choose between work and family. Their thoughts on how it can be done will inspire women everywhere. This invaluable book weaves the actual Milk Memos journal entries with information-packed sections on such topics of great concern to working moms as:

- finding a private place to pump breast milk at work and establishing a routine that you can maintain despite your busy workday;
- establishing the right daycare solution;
- getting a decent night's sleep with a new baby so that you can shine (or at least glimmer!) during business hours; and
- negotiating flextime, part-time, or a job share with an employer.

The ultimate gift for any new mom who will soon return to work, The Milk Memos is destined to become a classic on the parenting shelf.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Colburn-Smith and Serrette aim to make the impossible a little less so with their guide for working nursing moms. "We are thoroughly convinced," they write, "that you don't have to choose between having a career and being a great mom." The genesis of the book was in a tiny lactation room at IBM, where an impromptu mothers' group formed. Pumping away in the former janitor's closet, the IBM moms communicated with each other through notebooks about their struggles, woes and joys. Sections of the notebooks are reproduced, interwoven with practical advice. While at times the book reads like an ad for Medela breast pumps, the guidance is sound. Choosing child care, spilled breast milk, picking the right pump, evil bosses, plugged ducts, low milk production (breasts that turn out to be "Milk Duds") and the like are written about both informatively and humorously. In this solid resource, Colburn-Smith and Serrette do their best to be all-inclusive, careful not to judge those who supplement with formula or decide to wean before the baby's first birthday. (Mar.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Product Details

• Paperback: 370 pages
• Publisher: Tarcher (March 15, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1585425443
• ISBN-13: 978-1585425440
• Product Dimensions: 5.2 x 1.1 x 7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (69 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #26,767 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #29 in Books > Business & Investing > Women & Business
  • #81 in Books > Parenting & Relationships > Family Relationships > Motherhood

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Fabulously helpful September 16, 2008

By Robyn DiFalco

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

This book is a "must have" for any nursing mommas going back to work and hoping to continue the breastfeeding relationship. I wish I had had this book when my first daughter was born and I went back to work. I felt so alone in my extremely challenging endeavor of pumping and working. If I had had this book, I would have felt supported, vindicated, inspired, and most of all, would have had the collective wisdom of other women who've learned how to make it work.

I now plan to buy this book for all my friends who are having babies and planning to continue their careers out of the home. I would also recommend Working Without Weaning but if you're only going to buy one book, this one will tell you most everything you need and it's so darn affordable! It's also well written and backed up by research.

Hurray for a couple of super-moms who managed to pump AND work AND somehow find time to write a book! Most books are written by stay-at-home moms who could never understand the pump/work dynamic. (No offense to them but even my local LLL leader couldn't help me because she has never experienced working out of the home 40 hrs/wk, away from her baby, dealing with pumping and storing milk and all the rest.

This book covers everything from starting the breastfeeding relationship on the right foot, introducing bottles, buying the right pump, negotiating time/space with your employer, sleep-deprivation, anxiety about being separated from your baby, the challenge of juggling career and family priorities, the challenge of being perceived as "less productive" at work now that you're juggling everything else. It has a nice balance of informative narrative from the authors, interspersed between the journal entries of the "Milk Mamas" group sharing the lactation room at IBM. I wish I had colleagues in my workplace to share this kind of journal with but reading their comments made me feel like I was not alone in my struggles.

Unlike other books I encountered, this book does not start from the premise that new moms should consider quitting their job or giving up their careers. It starts with the understanding that you are going back to work, either by choice or necessity, and aims to give you all the tools you need to successfully continue providing your baby with breastmilk for as long as you want to. Towards the end, it addresses the potential alternatives such as flex schedules, part time work, or putting your career on hold. But it doesn't start off making you feel like you're a bad mother if you go back to work.

Now that I've read this book (and a couple others), I just know I'm going to be more successful with pumping and working this time around with my second baby. In retrospect, it helped me see that I actually did a pretty good job the first time around (100% breastmilk until 6 months; daughter weened herself at 9 months when my milk supply dried up). I just felt like such a failure and like I lacked the kind of support I needed.

Definitely buy this book NOW and read it cover to cover if you are going to be a working mom! You'll enjoy and appreciate it.

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars You don't have to be a working mom to buy this March 22, 2007

By Lawrence J. Galardi

Format:Paperback

Every employee in Corporate America focuses on how to balance their work chaos and with their life chaos. As someone who is obviously NOT a working mother, I read The Milk Memos as both poignant and hilarious -- detailing with a rich storytelling that it is entirely possible to literally nurture both family and career. The two authors are obviously writing from their own first-hand experiences, as well as those of their colleagues who are featured in the book. From those experiences, we see that there's something very telling which goes beyond the book's primary premise (the personal trials, tribulations and triumphs of mothers returning to work after maternity leave).

After reading excerpts, it was clear that this book maps how real life and work intersect. It also underscores the powerful bond of networking. As a people manager, this book helps reinforce for me that life experiences matter. They have to be grasped and enbraced when managing diverse teams. It's a new competitive game today, with a new demanding workforce. The best way for companies to win and succeed in what has become an intensifying competitive marketplace is to have a workforce that feels wanted, respected and nurtured.

The Milk Memos, though looking at just one aspect of that diverse workforce (mothers just back from maternity leave), does exactly that. It's a great read for anyone looking to strike a balance between office work and outside home life -- whether you're a working mother, a single Dad, an empty nester, a family builder or even someone without kids.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Perfect for the breastfeeding working mother! March 29, 2007

By J. Laney

Format:Paperback

This book is fabulous! As a soon to be second time mom who will breastfeed again, I found it to be a refreshing reminder of what is to come and helpful in that it gave me a community that I was a part of. Most breastfeeding books only cover a little bit about returning to work, one even suggested having someone bring the baby to work so you could breastfeed (YEAH right, that is practical in an office!). The Milk Memos gives you sound advice along with humor and support. I read this book in less than 24hours even having a 3 year old! I was highly entertained and wished I could be a part of their 'club'. I highly recommend this book to anyone who will be breastfeeding or even just thinking about it. It proves that it can be done and that you can make it through this special time in your child's life.