At the Women's march

At the Women's march
All Lives Matter

Never Again

Never Again
We Won't Go Back

Wednesday, September 1, 2010

NEW 4TH EDITION OF "THE COMPLETE BOOK OF BREASTFEEDING"

When I wrote the first edition of this book back in 1971, I started off the Introduction with the following paragraph:

"If you were living at some other time or in some other place, you might not need this book. You might even wonder about its purpose, since you would be getting much of the information in these pages from your mother, your aunts, your older sisters, and your neighbors. They would share with you their breastfeeding experiences and those of their mothers before them. As you saw them suckling their infants, you would pick up the “tricks of the trade” without even realizing it. It would never occur to you that you would not nurse your baby, because every baby that you had ever seen would have been fed at his mother’s breast—except in the extremely rare case when a mother was too ill to nurse."

At that time I knew hardly any grandmothers who had nursed their own children and who could therefore be helpful to their daughters when their babies were born. Now, 38 years after that first edition was published, the situation is very different. Many of today’s young moms were breastfed themselves and so do have the benefits of motherly help. Still, we grandmas don’t know everything about breastfeeding – aside from the fact that our nursing days are long behind us. Furthermore, there’s so much new research about breastfeeding and so many lifestyle changes in our daughters’ lives that there’s still room for a book a new mom can keep by her bed, underline, and consult without turning on her computer or getting out of bed. One new section in this edition is addressed especially to grandmothers -- focusing on how we can be of most help to the woman breastfeeding our grandchild.

And so I hope that this brand-new 4th edition of THE COMPLETE BOOK OF BREASTFEEDING will become the breastfeeding “Bible” for still another generation. The beautiful new edition is just coming into bookstores now. For this edition I consulted Laura M. Marks, M.D., a Connecticut pediatrician who nursed her own three children and counsels mothers about breastfeeding and other child care issues. Laura has another connection to me, too. Her mother, Lynne, is one of the super grannies whose story of an activity she has done with her grandchildren is in SUPER GRANNY.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Congratulations on finishing your 4th edition! The 3rd edition never left my bedside... and during the difficult 4th and 5th weeks, it hardly left my side at all! Now my baby is a big girl of 4, and she's strong and healthy.

Cowtown Pattie said...

I'll have to recommend it to my daughter who has to defend her decision to breastfeed at least once a day to some one.

Great blog here, Sally! I'll have to add you to my "herd".

Susan Adcox said...

Congratulations on the new edition! I am proud that in my family there is an unbroken history of breastfeeding, as far back as I have knowledge. My mother resisted the bottle feeding trend back in the forties and fifties. I breastfed all of my children, and both of my daughters were totally sold on breastfeeding.

Nona Nita said...

What a service to my generation your book was! My mother fought me all the way with my first, but with my second,I successfully nursed. Your book really helped. I figured by now the benefits of nursing would be ingrained in society but saw that my daughter-in-law needed to fight nurses, and yes, some pediatricians, to successfully nurse my grand children. Thanks for continuing to support the new generation of mothers with your 4th edition.

Nona Nita said...

I remember reading your book when my first was born in 1977 and the support was one of the only things that got me through...especially with a mother who kept asking me "Why are you doing this to yourself?" You have helped a lot of mommies and even more babies. Congrats!