Cathy,
I so admire you for publicly criticizing a *sacred text* such as The Womanly
Art. I feel that just about all parenting books can be potentially damaging to
one's self esteem, creating an ideal picture in our minds of what we and our
babies should be like. That's why I attended LLL mtgs before I had my first
baby but never read a book on parenting other than The Continuum Concept  and
the baby care section of Spiritual Midwifery. I love The Womanly Art but with
any book I recommend to women I always point out that it is simply a guide not
the ideal. I also like to tell moms that breastfeeding is like sex. It's a
totally natural but it's awkward at first, not always pleasant, and with
practice it eventually becomes effortless and quite enjoyable. It never looks
the same in reality as it does in the books or movies.
Tracy Kirschner,DC
LLLL Boulder, CO