The 12th Carnival of Breastfeeding: A book for everyone on your list.

Welcome to the twelfth Carnival of Breastfeeding! This month, in time for the holidays, we're bringing you reviews of breastfeeding/parenting books and videos.

If you're in the market for other breastfeeding products, check out past posts on best gifts for nursing moms, and breastfeeding gifts you'd bring to a baby shower. 

I started out this post with the intention of writing about one video, but I had too hard a time narrowing it down.  So here is my shopping list for many of the moms on your list.  Be sure to check out the posts from other bloggers below (updated throughout the day)!

For the pregnant mom:  In the past I've recommended The Nursing Mother's Companion, and I still love it, but there is a new edition of Dr. Jack Newman's The Ultimate Breastfeeding Book of Answers, and I'm a big fan.  Both books are comprehensive.  The Nursing Mother's Companion is better organized for quick reference, but Jack Newman's book has more interesting editorial content.  For the mom who wants her breastfeeding information with a dose of humor, check out Andi Silverman's Mama Knows Breast, which I just reviewed. 

For the working/pumping mom:  No surprise here that I love The Milk Memos, by Cate Colburn Smith and Andrea Serrette.  You can see my review here.  This book is a wonderful mixture of practical advice and personal accounts of working and pumping.  Psst...look for a podcast and give away related to this book soon. 

For the stay-at-home mom:  For the mom who gets asked "what do you do all day?" or "when are you going back to work?" I'd recommend What Mothers Do, Especially when it Looks like Nothing by Naomi Stadlen.

For the crunchy breastfeeding mom:  The Nursing Mother's Herbal, by Sheila Humphrey, is an excellent guide to herbs and breastfeeding.  It includes information on herbs for low milk supply, thrush, and a whole host of other breastfeeding problems.  It also discusses great home remedies for different breastfeeding problems, and gives a nice overview of complementary and alternative therapies.

For kids:  Mama's Milk, by Michael Elsohn Ross, is a wonderful and simple picture book which shows different mammals, including humans, nursing their young.  You can read my review here.  It looks like a Spanish version is due out soon.  I'm still hoping for a board book version.

For the La Leche League Leader:  La Leche League celebrated its 50th anniversary this year, and to commemorate the event the organization published The Revolutionaries Wore Pearls.  This book chronicles the history of LLL and its founders, and is presented like a scrapbook, with newspaper clippings and family pictures.  It's fun reading that makes you grateful to be parenting today.  I'll post a more detailed review soon.

For the lactation consultant:  There is a new DVD out which I think will revolutionize the world of breastfeeding:  Baby-Led Breastfeeding, by Dr. Christina Smillie and Kittie Frantz.  It shows baby after baby sliding down the mother's chest and self attaching.  Many of the babies filmed have had significant latch problems.  I'd love to be able to post a clip.  Another new publication which your lactation consultant would love is Supporting Sucking Skills in Breastfeeding Infants.  I just got my copy and so far it's great.

Finally, for your snarky mom friend:  Hatched: The Big Push from Pregnancy to Motherhood, is one of the funniest books I've seen in a long time.  It features little posed fake chicks with hilarious captions.  One picture shows a playground scene, with two groups of moms.  The caption says, "Ramona felt like it was high school all over again.  The cool moms, a.k.a. the Breast-Feeders, staked out their territory near the swings.  The outcasts, a.k.a. the Similac Sisters, were relegated to the sandbox."  Everyone gets skewered here, so it's a gift for a friend with a good sense of humor.  And be sure that the gift recipient is a parent - no one else could fully understand.

Check out these posts from other carnival contributors (updated through the day):

• The International Breastfeeding Symbol Blog reviews The Baby Book and Unconditional Parenting
• Hobo Mama reviews Our Babies, Ourselves (one of my favorites!)
• Mama Knows Breast reviews bOObs: A Guide to Your Girls
• Breastfeeding Mums reviews many books, including The Breastfeeding Cafe
• On School Street reviews Blindsided by a Diaper: 30 Men and Women Reveal How Parenthood Changes a Relationship
• Tales of Life with a Girl on the Go reviews the children's book The Best Gifts
• James and the Giant Moose reviews Having Faith
• The True Face of Birth reviews Mama Knows Breast
• Breastfeeding 1-2-3 reviews Baby Matters: What your Doctor May Not Tell you about Caring for your Baby
• Crunchy Domestic Goddess reviews the video What Babies Want

Want to get email updates from the Motherwear Blog?  Subscribe here.  Want an RSS feed?  Click here.

Comments

[Mama Bear]

Whoa! Here I thought I was being ambitious by posting two reviews! You just about covered the whole lactivism/parenting library! LOL! O.K., of course I'm exaggerating. I'm sure the other participants in the carnival will probably blog about other great books I haven't even heard of. But still. You have really outdone yourself. Yeah! :)

[crunchy domestic goddess]

what a wonderful collection for every mother (and child)!

[MomOnTheGo]

Thanks for sharing these. I'm done my working/pumping days but think that I will pick up The Milk Memos anyway. My husband brought my daughter to me one night I had to work late and a woman, who knocked on my closed door, saw me nursing and said, "Eew, you're doing that mother-thing." It really is a mother thing, isn't it.

[Sinead@BreastFeedingMums]

This is a great selection of books, Tanya. I've recently started The Milk Memos and am really enjoying it...

[Hobo Mama]

I second The Ultimate Breastfeeding Book of Answers -- I read that sucker front to back, even when the subject had nothing to do with me in particular. Somehow it's a fascinating reference book, two descriptives that don't always go together.

I recently found Mama's Milk and loved reading it to my little one. I agree that it was really well done.

This might be a stupid question, but do you have any idea if The Milk Memos speaks to work-at-home parents? So far my little family's managing a 5-month-old and a home business, and I know in so many ways we have it easy, but I'm always wondering what developmental step is coming up next and how we'll literally work around it.

The Baby-Led Breastfeeding DVD sounds fascinating -- I love evidence of the natural and instinctual side of breastfeeding that we (mothers in Western culture, or at least, me!) come to so lately and with such difficulty -- and surprise. What an intriguing look at how breastfeeding was _intended_ for our species.

Hatched! looks hilarious -- I'm definitely checking it out.

Cheers!
Lauren

[tanya@motherwearblog]

Lauren,

I'd say that the Milk Memos is most useful for moms who are working outside the home. If you're doing any pumping it might come in handy, too. The other chapters on work environment, day care, etc. wouldn't apply. The stories are fun for anyone to read, though!

Your post, about Our Babies, Ourselves, is great. It's the book I credit with the decison to become a lactation consultant!

Tanya

[SusanB]

Great list, Tanya. I was actually planning a "recommendations" post about some of my favorite parenting books...but you went ahead and did it for me!
By the way, I hope you get to reading Having Faith sometime soon. The breastfeeding chapters always make me think of people like you who work so hard to promote breastfeeding. I don't know about you, but I know now I have a nice big new to-read list just from these posts today. =)

[Carrie at Natural Moms Talk Radio]

How does a blogger join this carnival?

[deborah]

tanya, this is fantastic! only now i have to invent friends in each category so i can buy all of the books and read them first myself. :)

[Alison]

I bought 4 of the book Hatched. What a great shower gift!