While this book contains some good information on breastfeeding, I found that, overall, it functioned more as an ideological manifesto than a how-to guide. The answers to most of my breastfeeding questions and problems had to be found elsewhere. (Primarily through friends and the excellent site, kellymom.com).

Worse, the book actually angered me at numerous points. It is judgmental and doesn't consider the realities of many women's lives. I know the La Leche League is beloved by breastfeeding women everywhere, and I know that we owe them a debt for the current acceptance of breastfeeding in American society. Still, enough with the attachment parenting cult, the repeated use of William Sears (and no other pediatricians) to hammer home your points, and no acknowledgment of either the difficulties of breastfeeding or the LEGITIMATE NEEDS OF MOTHERS.) When I looked up the section on sleep, for example, I was not given a list of options for approaching night time feedings. Rather, I was told that it was wrong to even be concerned about my own sleep needs. No one has a right to a full night's sleep, the book scolded me. The best solution to not getting any sleep is to simply accept, cheerfully, that my sleep deprivation is best for my baby. (While that is true in the baby's earliest months, pediatricians agree that babies become neurologically and physiologically capable of sleeping for 5-6 hour stretches after 3-4 months of age.) No, there is only one answer: and that is to nurse all night, while bed sharing, until my baby -- at whatever age -- wants to do something else.

It does contain some helpful information. But avoid it if you're not ready for your first dose of parenting guilt and judgment.