Recommend me a book about breastfeeding

[Waggamamma]

I'm 25wks pregnant with dc2. Breastfeeding with my first was a total disaster, I didn't manage past two weeks and it was incredibly stressful for both of us. I want to try again with this baby and hopefully be better prepared and persevere a bit more.

I want to arm myself with knowledge to overcome any hurdles and know what's normal and when to get help. I would like to buy one book about bf to read before baby arrives and help me prepare. What would you recommend?

The Food of Love by Kate Evans :)

and one to avoid - What to expect when you're breastfeeding by Claire Byam Cook. Full of misinformation.

The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding.

what mothers do

Not exactly practical advice but brilliant reading to make you appreciate all the things you will do as a mother of a small baby. Great for morale!!

I second "the womanly art" but found kellymom kellymom.com invaluable during the various stages of bf.

Oh and good luck! Don't let scare stories put you off. Everyone is different and for plenty of women bf is a doddle. However most likely it will hurt a bit during the early days! it's really quite common until your nipples toughen up (a mw told me when dd was 2 days old; sounds horrendous but so true]. Make sure you check and double chek your latch and get baby off if the latch is not as should be. Sorry, you do don't ask for advice I know.

The baby book by William & Martha Sears. Its about more than breastfeeding its attachment parenting slings, co sleeping etc. If thats your style?

I found it really explains why babies behave the way they do and it helped me understand my dcs.

Agree Womanly Art of Breastfeeding. Useful to keep referring back to especially in the early days. Kellymom and Dr Jack Newman websites great for advice.
Ended up expressing with dd1 but successfully ebf dd2 at 1yr and counting.

www.bestbeginnings.org.uk some great tutorials. Click on films...

The Womanly Art- by a Mile.

Just to join the chorus - The Womanly Art is such a good book. Although clearly not a book, the KellyMom website is also a great resource.

baby led breastfeeding by Gill Rapley is also very good.

Another vote for The Womanly Art, it's fab.

Also the Kellymom and Jack Newman websites. Another resource I found very good is The Alpha Parent's "timeline of a breastfed baby" - gives you a good idea of what to expect from newborn onwards.

Good luck!

Oh and yes, stay away from anything by Clare Byam Cook.

The Kellymom website is pretty good, and covers expressing and storage of milk too (should you need to).

Bestfeeding is also great and less intimidating than the Womanly Art imho.

Avoid Clare BuyMyBook at all costs.

The womanly art of breastfeeding is a very good technical book, however I don't know if it would have overwhelmed me a bit when I was pregnant.

I definitely recommend The Food of Love, it's so friendly and chatty and hilarious! It was the ONLY thing I read about babies/feeding before having DD and really really helped with my confidence in the early days of breastfeeding. I read it over and over, it was like a friend. It is full of cartoons and funny.

It is quite keen on hippyish stuff like co-sleeping etc, so as long as that doesn't put you off. It's very non judgemental though.

Mumsnet bf forum is also brilliant for advice and support.

Oops just saw it is your second baby. Womanly art of breastfeeding might be better then. I still love Food of Love though, but as an experienced mum you might find some of it a bit redundant (though the bf advice is excellent)

Thanks everyone! Seems to be a lot of people recommending Womanly Art of bf so I will have a look and order that. Food of Love sounds good too.

I found my library had quite a few in the children's section, could be worth a look

I just had a read of the "look inside" bit of Womanly Art on Amazon and it is so intimidating! All doulas and distrusting medical intervention! I suspect it isn't for me.

Food of Love is excellent, really accessible and fun to read.

Womanly Art is good, but more of a textbook.

The best thing of all to do, would be to find local support and contact them before baby arrives! We often have pregnant mums coming to our local bfing groups to seek information, and it's wonderful to see them come back with their newborns and be able to help!

I checked the library but they didn't have anything. So just going to buy one or two.

I'm not at all into cosleeping, baby wearing, doulas etc. It's just not my style of parenting. So maybe womanly art isn't for me either annarose?

I'll start with Food of Love.

I have the local bf group on Facebook too so might try to get along nearer to due date. I found it useful for meeting other mums last time round but not for practical support, I was too embarrassed to admit I was struggling amongst a group who made it look so easy.

You can attend a breastfeeding group before your baby arrives. It's often a great way of finding out how to get breastfeeding off to a good start- especially in the early days when you are a bit more restricted. It's also a helpful to get to know local breastfeedung counsellors so you have a support in place should you need help in the first few weeks- it will save a lot of work trying to pin down a counsellor if you are in the middle of a difficult time.

I like La Leche League- they run support groups all over the country and I know they welcome pregnant women. Most groups also have a small library of breastfeeding books which are available to borrow free of charge including La Leche League's own publication - The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding, but many others too. Might be a good idea to attend a few meetings ( and borrow a few books ) before your baby arrives.

I had a bit of disaster first time round too. Had this one recommended to me:

Breastfeeding, Take Two: Successful Breastfeeding the Second Time Around (by Stephanie Casemore).

I'm not yet in a place where I'm ready to read it (but not pregnant again so no urgency!) but I thought I'd pass the recommendation on.

Am afraid I have to disagree and say I find Clare Byam Cook's book 'What to expect when you are Breastfeeding' really useful and I still use it as a reference second time around. It's practical and runs through common problems/solutions etc. Also her DVD 'Breastfeeding without tears' is really practical and perhaps more easily accessible as it's visual and shows her actually demonstrating corrrect latch with mums and their newborns. Nothing better than real life support though (Breastfeeding counsellers/cafe/groups etc. as others have said). Very interesting to hear the other suggestions too, I will probably also buy Food of Love. All the best best of luck OP xx