Nursing Your Baby 4e

480 Pages·2005·3.18 MB·english

by  Karen Pryor

Fourth Edition
Nursing Your
B A B Y
Karen Pryor and Gale Pryor

To
Max, Gwen, Wylie, Ellie,
Micaela, Nathaniel, and Maile,
all breastfed babies

Contents
Disclaimer
Preface to the Fourth Edition x
Part I:
The Science and History of Breastfeeding 1
1 The Nursing Couple 3
2 How the Breasts Function 21
3 Human Milk 64
4 How the Baby Functions: The Body 121
5 How the Baby Functions: Behavior 145
6 A Parent Is Born: The Innate Behavior of
Caretaking 171
7 Helpers and Hinderers: How Breastfeeding
Was Saved, and Why the Job Is Not Yet Done 192
Part II:
The Art of Breastfeeding 215
8 Before the Baby Comes: Preparing to Breastfeed 217
9 In the Hospital 245
vi Contents
10 One to Six Weeks: The Learning Period 275
11 The Reward Period Begins 316
12 The Working Mother:
How Breastfeeding Can Help 362
13 Nursing Your Older Baby 391
References 407
Resources: Sources of Breastfeeding
Information and Supplies 437
Sample Letter to Human Resources Department 440
Index 443
Acknowledgments
About the Authors
Also by the Authors
Credits
Cover
Copyright
About the Publisher
Disclaimer
This book contains advice and information relating to health care.
It is not intended to replace medical advice and should be used to
supplement rather than replace regular care by your doctor. It is rec-
ommended that you seek your physician’s advice before embarking
on any medical program or treatment.
All efforts have been made to ensure the accuracy of the informa-
tion contained in this book as of the date published. The authors
and the publisher expressly disclaim responsibility for any adverse
effects arising from the use or application of the information con-
tained herein.
Preface to the Fourth Edition
I have grown up with this book. At eight, I read Nursing Your Baby
cover to cover, not because I was fascinated by breastfeeding, but
because so much of my mother, Karen Pryor, could be found in its
pages. The mother herself was right there beside me, driving me
and my brothers to school, getting dinner on the table, managing
a busy household and career. But her mind—her unique blending
of biology, anthropology, sociology, and everyday mothering—
was explained to me in her readable writer’s voice on the pages of
Nursing Your Baby. It shaped, in turn, my mind, my writing, and
my mothering.
Her ability to communicate the value of breastfeeding to her
peers in her writing and lectures was one of the lifelines that
saved breastfeeding. Nearly eradicated in the United States by
the 1960s when just 18 percent of babies were breastfed, a few
dedicated women, my mother among them, coaxed the art of
breastfeeding back into our culture. For nursing is an art, and
one best taught woman to woman, one mother and baby at a
time. Perhaps that is why Nursing Your Baby, written by a mother
for other mothers, has endured for more than forty years. This
book’s gift is the confidence it instills in women that they
can nurse their babies. It has assured two generations of women
ix Preface to the Fourth Edition
that not only does breastfeeding matter a great deal, but so do they.
With confidence gained through successfully breastfeeding
their babies against the odds, thousands of women have gone on
to devote their lives to helping other mothers do the same. They
formed La Leche League International and established the new
medical profession of certified lactation consultants. They’ve or-
ganized, legislated, protested, campaigned, and written articles
and more books. Thanks to their work, and that of the research
scientists drawn by the fascination of lactation, it is at last well
known and widely accepted that “breast is best.”
Even so, the majority of American babies are weaned within
a few months. Why? The United States is still not a very friendly
place for mothers and babies. Breastfeeding beyond the newborn
period requires more than knowing how to put a baby to the
breast; it asks for a culture that supports a mother and baby as a
couple. Culture is a pervasive thing, and we are not always aware
of its influence in our individual lives. It can be found in a neigh-
bor’s advice, a medical opinion, a television commercial, a hu-
man resources department, a magazine article, or a Hollywood
movie. Despite the resurgence of breastfeeding in recent decades,
the overwhelming majority of cultural messages given new moth-
ers are that bottlefeeding is the rule and breastfeeding the excep-
tion, that mothers who work (as most do) cannot also breastfeed,
and that nursing, at least for a few weeks, is an obligation rather
than a source of satisfaction and joy. None of these beliefs is true,
and all interfere with successful breastfeeding.
With each new edition of Nursing Your Baby, my mother and I
are surprised by how much work still needs to be done to support
mothers and babies, how many obstacles remain for women who
wish to blend the pleasure of mothering, beginning with breast-
feeding, with the rest of their active twenty-first-century lives.
Now, with the fourth edition, we are gratified to witness the