Sorry, I seem to be hogging the airways tonight - am "behind" in reading my
mail, and feeling responsive.

I've noticed a couple of references to "The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding"
lately. I have to say that I personally found that book to be utterly
devastating to me, when I was a new first-time mother (lo, these 21+ years
ago now!). I remember trying *desperately* to breastfeed my baby, after a
very prolonged and miserable labor and a C/S delivery, consulting that book
repeatedly, and just weeping and weeping every time I did. I had read it
several times before I delivered (there weren't that many options in those
days), figured I had a pretty good understanding of what to do, but then the
reality I encountered was so far from what the book described that I drew
the only logical conclusion a new mother could draw - it was  ALL MY FAULT
that the baby didn't nurse "right", that I was DOING IT ALL WRONG (which I
could tell because we in no way resembled the picture of mother-baby bliss
that were described in the book), and that I was as a result A TERRIBLE
MOTHER.

Older and wiser now, and it turned out that I was in fact a really great
mother (though BFing my first baby never was anything like they described in
that book), but I still don't like that book. It's tone is kind of cloying,
or cutesy, and it doesn't match the reality of a lot of the women I've
worked with. I'm glad there are some other choices now. (Including some by
subscribers to this list, but I wouldn't want to be jumped on for
"advertising". Are there others who share my feeling about "The Womanly
Art...?", or am I just  a grouch? What books do you recommend to new moms?
(Are we allowed to ask that?? Somebody clue me in, if not.)

Cathy Bargar, RN, IBCLC Ithaca NY