Has anyone read the book 'What to Expect When You're Breastfeeding...And What If You Can't?'

[Dragonhart]

Is it any good? Want to buy my dsis a book as she is preg and as I had afew problems at the start with bf thought a book like this would be really good.

If it is not, any other recomendations would be gratefully received!

[Marina]

I think Bestfeeding is a great book, dragonhart.
Clare Byam-Cook is SWMNBN's breastfeeding advisor. So I agree with all of JaneAustenAllegro's caveats about her methodology.

[tiktok]

Hmmm...which book do I like? I think the perfect and comprehensive one has yet to be written

I have got 'issues' with CBC's book, and the Baby Whisperer, but I know a lot of people like them.

[Laurenypops]

I found the book quite helpful, but she also has a dvd and this was invaluable. I was given very lttle help with establishing breast feeding, and feel without watching this dvd I might not have managed it. Watching someone breast feed is so much more understandable than reading how to.

[Twinklemegan]

No there's really very little in there about bottle-feeding - just enough to be useful, no more.

[Porcupine]

i had best feeding
mad eno difference
still farking hiurt

[Twinklemegan]

Yes, I don't think any book will stop it being bloody painful.

[AitchTwoOh]

ms byam-cook appeared on a channel five documentary as a 'friend of swmnbn' and i think she may have written a foreword or somesuch in a certain book. i therefore view eveything she produces with deep suspicion.

[Twinklemegan]

I saw that and was pretty tbh. I think the book is very good and I really do wish I'd had it at the beginning.

[suis]

I read an abridged version of this from off the front of a magazine. I have to say I found it helpful and refreshing. It does go against some of the things my health visitor tells me, but I have tried things both ways and chosen what worked for my and my DS.

FOr example, I do use "nipple to nose" as that seems to help, but I have also used breast shaping as I have quite large breasts and it really seemed to make a difference esp. when we were getting bfing established, even though the HV told me not to do it.

Before DS was born I also liked this book because I was nervous that bfing might not work out for me and I felt that it was less judgmental than other things I read because it accepted that things might not be easy and might not work out however hard you tried. In the event we had a lot of trouble getting bfing established and had to topup bottle feed for while (on the advice and insistence of the paedeatrician and bfing advisor) and I found the information and ideas in this book to be very helpful in this circumstance. Other books on bfing didn't seem to want to consider that mixed feeding might be necessary or that there was any route back from formula once it had been started. DS is now fully breastfed, but that took perseverance.

[Porcupine]

in fact re books id say save your moeny

[Dragonhart]

Suis, can you tell me what 'breast shaping is'? I have always used the nipple to nose method but when I was having problems with feeding ds1, the bf councillor I saw told me to squeese my boob slightly so that it was easier to get it into his mouth (I have quite large boobs and nipples!) Helped me loads and made a real difference.

Totally agree about the hurting no matter what, but I just want to give her something to reasure her that the problems she might have are totally normal and that it is not all loving gazes into your baby's eyes from the start. So that if she has those problems then, she knows that she can do something about it.

Even though I found the baby whisperer book helpful as I was totally clueless when it came to looking after a baby, I did ignore alot of what she said like about a dummy and about introducing a bottle early (always found expressing more hassle than it was worth anyway!). I would however swear by her bed time routine!!

[suis]

Breast shaping is just what you describe. Someone explained it to me as making your breast more like a sandwich than a melon, and therefore much easier to fit in LO's mouth when you are big breasted. (being sure that you keep the sandwich sort of horizontal to the mouth IYSWIM). It helped us a lot as DS was just not getting on far enough. Squeezing my breast top and bottom(very gently so as not to block any ducts) made it a far better shape to fit in his mouth and get the nipple back a bit than just letting him try and get a latch on to a nearly smooth football of a breast.

[Bethbe]

What helped me the most wasn't books, but that a friend was 6 months ahead of me and let me stare at her breastfeeding. She even showed me what she was doing a couple of times. Was really prepared when it was my turn as it wasn't so wierd to me!