Breastfeeding reads: Nursing Your Baby

Well, that sounds like a fairly straightforward breastfeeding book, right?  Nursing Your Baby, by Karen Pryor and Gale Pryor was one I really liked.  And continue to like.  It doesn’t have a ton of help for overactive letdown or overabundant supply (although they’re mentioned), but it has a lot of other important information.
The first segment of the book is about how breastfeeding works, and covers both science and history.  It’s fascinating – at least, I found it fascinating.  There was a ton of research covered, too, including all about antibodies and breastmilk, how the breast works, and on and on. 
The second half of the book covers the art of breastfeeding, and has lots of helpful information.  Reading this section helped my sister figure out that her son had a short frenulum.  There’s a chapter about preparation before the baby’s birth, a chapter about getting started, about one to six weeks, and then a chapter called “The Reward Period Begins.”  This was something of a revelation to me, as I read this book before my first baby was born:  prepare to have the first six weeks be tough!  The breastfeeding classes all seemed to indicate that, if you were doing it right, there wouldn’t be pain or bother once you got started.  What a myth!  Planning for six weeks – at least – of a steep learning curve is a good idea.  There are also chapters on working mothers and nursing older babies. 
I recommend this book – it’s got loads of great information on breastfeeding.  The paperback edition is also about the size of a largish novel, which means that it’s easy to hold while breastfeeding, which – let’s face it – is when nursing moms get most of their reading time.