Unbuttoned: Women Open Up about the Pleasures, Pains, and Politics of Breastfeeding

"In this revealing collection of essays, 25 writers talk about their personal breastfeeding experiences. The beautifully written, heartbreaking first entry, 'Breast-Laid Plans' by Heidi Raykeil is about how nursing her daughter for three and a half years helped her become whole again after the loss of her first-born child. In 'Motherhood Made a Liar Out of Me,' Daryn Eller writes about feeling left out as the mother of an adopted, bottle-fed daughter and when asked in the playground if her child is weaned, she always answers 'yes.' Dawn Porter's 'In a Man's World' tackles the difficulties of pumping milk in the workplace, while Patricia Berry is clear on her decision in 'Because I Don't Want To,' her husband and La Leche League be damned. The authors are all accomplished writers and their collected emotions and sentiments form a powerful and informative commentary on this most loaded of parenting topics that will especially resonate with anyone who has raised a child. (Apr.)" Publishers Weekly (Starred Review) (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)

Much like nursing itself, this anthology on the topic starts out rough and gets easier as it goes. Part one, "Latching On," consists of five essays and a poem full of passages detailing excruciating experiences like this one, from novelist Julia Glass: "My darling baby was mauling me. He was getting the milk he needed ... but he was clamping onto my breast like a toothless piranha on steroids."

... Washington Post Book Review (read the entire Washington Post review) Many of the 25 contributors, mothers bombarded by the slogan "breast is best," describe the pressure to nurse and their feelings of shame if it doesn't work out. Dana Sullivan, who co-edited the book with fellow journalist Maureen Connolly, recalls a friend saying, "My babies have never had that poison," when she sees Sullivan preparing a bottle of formula. Another mother shares a more humorous experience: While breastfeeding on an airplane, San Francisco writer Leslie Crawford accidentally sprayed milk on the man sitting in front of her. She felt embarrassed, yes, but also proud of her abundance: "I mean, that was really something, to have shot that far and that high." Anecdotes like this one offer solace and camaraderie to the many mothers out there confronted with, as Glass puts it, "the rude surprise of a lifetime."

Rachel Saslow is an editorial aide in The Washington Post Health section.

Reviewed by Rachel Saslow, Washington Post Book World (Copyright 2006 Washington Post Book World Service/Washington Post Writers Group)
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With breastfeeding at a 20-year high in the United States, the essays in this book are sure to resonate with millions of nursing mothers. Penned by 25 distinguished writers, these personal stories are by turns happy, funny, poignant, wry, determined, exhausted, and elated-in short, all of the emotions that breastfeeding evokes. This anthology makes a perfect shower or new-baby gift!

The essays in this book are sure to resonate with millions of nursing mothers. Penned by 25 distinguished writers, these personal stories are by turns happy, funny, poignant, and wry--in short, all of the emotions that breastfeeding evokes.

Penned by 25 distinguished writers, these personal stories for nursing mothers are by turns happy, funny, poignant, and wry--in short, all of the emotions that breastfeeding evokes.