Robin Elise Weiss, author of The Better Way to Breastfeed* and many books on pregnancy and birth, is also the About.com Pregnancy and Childbirth guide, and it shows.
This is, I'm convinced, a very good thing. I've been writing about the impact of birth on breastfeeding for Best for Babes, and think that moms deserve to know much more than we typically do about how birth and related newborn procedures affect breastfeeding. That's a strength of this book.
This book has a number of other great features, the most obvious of which is its many photographs, including some great ones showing moms nursing in public. It also has breastfeeding affirmations, 'confidence cues,' and self care tips.
The Better Way to Breastfeed covers all the bases, from newborns to toddlers, preemies and multiples, pumps and pillows, working and weaning.
The book also does a nice job of describing how to achieve an asymmetrical latch, and includes a mention of a "semi-recumbent" position, which I believe is a reference to Laid-Back Breastfeeding. It also includes nice sections on co-sleeping, exercise (dispelling a commonly held myth), and sex and breastfeeding.
Things in the world of breastfeeding support have been changing pretty rapidly, and even though this book was published in 2010, there are a few references to update, including the new Infant Risk Center for questions about medications, the endorsement of the WHO growth charts by the AAP and the CDC (I believe that there is a typo that makes it appear that the CDC charts are based on exclusively breastfed babies, instead of the WHO charts). The picture of the breast seems a bit outdated, too (see the currently accepted anatomy).
All in all, I found The Better Way to Breastfeed to be a solid breastfeeding reference book, one that would probably be especially helpful to moms who are very visual learners and those who might need the confidence boost afforded by the many beautiful images of mothers nursing.
*I was given a review copy of this book.
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