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One of my most recommended breastfeeding books for nursing moms is this book called Breastfeeding Made Simple: 7 Natural Laws for Nursing Mothers by Nancy Mohrbacher.
This book is high on my list because its content is truly a gold mine for a breastfeeding mother.
If I would summarize how I feel about this book in one sentence, here is what I would say:
Curious?
Wait.. before you start hunting for this book, I would love to tell you further on what you can expect in the inside.
This detailed review will help you to learn more about Breastfeeding Made Simple: 7 Natural Laws for Nursing Mothers, including what the book covers, my favorite parts from the book, and things that you may dislike from it.
Read on…
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Book Overview
- Author: Nancy Mohrbacher and Kathleen Kendall Tacket
- No of pages: 352
- Size: 1 x 6 x 8.8 inches
- Available in: Kindle and paperback
What The Book Covers
1.First, this book explains about 7 essential concepts that a nursing mother ought to know, from how to start breastfeeding until how to end:
- mothers and babies are hardwired to breastfeed
- mother’s body is babies’ natural habitat
- better feel and flow happen in a comfort zone
- more milk first means more milk later
- every breastfeeding couple has its own rythm
- more milk out equals more milk made
- children wean naturally
2.Common breastfeeding challenges.
Your nipple may bled, you may got engorged, or you simply don’t produce enough milk.
Add from your baby’s side: too sleepy to nurse, illnesses…
What to do in such situation?
This book offers some practical and solid solutions that are granted to help you solving your problem.
3.Scientific mothering
This interesting chapter touches on things that can deviate from the mentioned nursing laws, but mainly about how history and culture have affected how we as mothers respond to our baby.
Are you feeding based on the clock?
Expecting your baby to nurse for certain minutes per session?
Or.. ignoring your baby’s cry so that they will cry less?
Then, this chapter is so worth to read.
The Highlights
1.Full of evidence-based and research-based studies
T his fact alone will guarantee that you will learn a TON of new knowledge through this book.
I love how the scientific studies are presented nicely and backed up with interesting case studies in to help you better understand the concept laid in this book.
Clearly, the authors are very knowledgeable about their topic and does not do a narrow talk.
They speak based on their wealth of experience, both from research studies and practical experiences dealing with nursing mothers facing arious breastfeeding problems.
Really, their insights are worth the read.
2.Among 7 laws mentioned in the book, my favorites are no 3 and 5.
Yes, all of them are important, but a lot of breastfeeding books have already discussed them.
But #3 and #5 , I personally think, is unique , originated from this book.
Law #3 discusses in great details on how to make breatfeeding comfortable for both you and your baby.
Despite common knowledge of common breastfeeding holds: craddle, cross-cradle, football-holId, or side lying, this book emphasizes that your most comfortable breastfeeding position may be unique to you and your baby, and may not from any of the 4 mentioned.
This chapter introduces laid-back breastfeeding, a concept which I never heard before, and looks so much easier to do compared to the conventional holds.
In this position, your baby’s tummy rest on your body (or anything soft) and you only need to support baby’s back lightly.
This is so unlike the conventional position whereby the mother needs to take an active role to support the baby’s back all the time (to the point that your arm may hurt, or you need a special pillow for that).
Additionally, placing your baby in this position will trigger his feeding reflex easier.
I’m truly excited to try it with my third baby when the time comes.
Wait..! Does it mean the conventional hold is wrong?
Certainly not, but it just need more energy to do it, since you are working against gravity and need to provide more support for your baby.
Additionally, this book explains clearly some super-useful tips to do when you are nursing in these conventional holds.
Among these tips are nose aligned to the nipple to aim off-center latch, trigger th
In law #5, the authors talk about why your breastfeeding routine may be totally opposite from others.
Every mother and baby pair is unique.
Some babies can go for up to 3 hours in between nursing while some others nurse much more frequently, say, every 1 hour.
That does not mean the later ones are not getting enough milk, certainly not.
It’s simply because the mother’s milk storage capacity in the later group is smaller compared to the first, and therefore, the milk needs to be produced more often, to meet babies’ demand.
This is also the reason, why the second group of moms need to be more vigilant in maintaining their milk supply, should they need to leave their babies full time (e.g. For work).
I love the case studies presented in this chapter, they are real, and really help us to understand how this milk supply thing works.
3.Achieving your long-term breastfeeding goals
There is one chapter dedicated for talking about how to achieve your long-term breastfeeding goals, including if you are planning to return to work full-time.
While the preparation back to work part is only discussed briefly, I love how the authors point out a very common problem that working moms face, which is: the baby consumes way too much milk compared to what she can pump during the day.
What to do here? Surprisingly, it’s very simple.
And this simple change in feeding management can alleviate this problem easily without wearing the mothers out.
Cons:
1.As mentioned, this book is full of citations from research papers.
While this is great, if you are not used to read evidence-based articles, it may make your head spins, haha.
My suggestion is to read it slowly so that you can digest the content gradually.
2.The authors are pro attachment parenting.
If you are not, you may not agree with some of their points, such as how they encourage to wear your baby (close to all the time) to keep them close and give them comfort that they need.
Personally I wear my baby a lot, but if I have chance to put her down, then I will, because it will give me the much needed break and do other stuff that may not be possible while carrying a baby around.
The authors also cite a lot of other cultures whereas new mothers post partum are being pampered so that they can focus solely on their babies.
This is significantly different with American culture, where mothers are expected to be pretty independent.
I do agree that expecting too much independence in newborn early days may not do good for you and your baby, but adopting other culture are not that easy.
3. The authors are pro Ameda and Medela breast pumps, particularly Ameda Purely Yours and Medela Pump In Style.
I understand that Ameda and Medela produce quite decent breast pumps and therefore pretty popular.
But it should be noted that different mothers have different breast pump preference.
You cannot expect them to love only these two pumps.
Additionally, nowadays there are a lot more breast pump models which has comparable or even superior performance compared with the two.
Read here for my #1 breast pump recommendation.
What this book is not about:
- This book discusses common breastfeeding challenges and their solutions, but not so in-depth when it talks about the real low milk supply struggle (i.e. Not temporary low supply due to inefficient latch or not enough milk removal).
If you are looking to boost your milk production, I strongly recommend you to read the more comprehensive book titled ‘A Breastfeeding Mother’s Guide to Making More Milk’ by Diana West (click here to read my detailed review about this book).
- This book discusses general guidelines on how to keep breastfeeding after returning to work, but not detailed enough for a back-to-work preparation.
If you are planning to pump while working, you need to read Jessica Shortall’s book, Work Pump Repeat, which offers abundant tips and tricks to get you started and keep going from an experience working mom. Trust me, you’ll love this book (here’s my review if you are curious).
Final Thought
This book contains a TON of knowledge that I strongly believe very useful for every nursing mothers, and therefore I said: GOLD MINE.
No wonder several IBCLCs praise this book as:
I personally learn a lot of new things from this book that I haven’t learnt anywhere else and I believe that would make breastfeeding my 3rd baby much easier.
Certainly, this book it has its own drawbacks (which I think is totally personal, so different moms may feel differently about it)
However, the advantages this book offers certainly outweigh its cons.
Thus, I would still recommend you to check out this book.
>> click here to see what other moms think about this book <<
You can also read the kindle preview here.
I hope this review helps you to learn more about what to expect from the book ‘Breastfeeding Made Simple’.
Having read my review, now what is your opinion?
Do you agree that this book is worth to read?
Or do you have other breastfeeding book that you like better? Share with us right in the comment.
[…] Trust me, you’ll LOVE this book. Otherwise, it won’t get 4.5 stars review in Amazon. You can check more reviews about this book here, or check my detailed review here. […]