Nursing Mother, Working Mother by Gale Pryor

I recently finished reading this book, Nursing Mother, Working Mother by Gale Pryor and Kathleen Huggins.  I'd picked it up at my local branch library, because I thought the title and topic were particularly relevant for me.

I'm not going back to work full time, but I am returning 20 hours a week after the end of my maternity leave.  And because of the length of my work days, I will certainly have to pump while I'm there.  I thought, based on a brief scan while standing in the stacks, that this book might offer me a bit of support, advice, and encouragement, specifically about the pumping part.

After having finished it, I'd say that it certainly is well written, but possibly a bit repetitive if you plan on reading it word for word.  In addition, the early chapters were very basic/familiar to me from previous reading I'd done on Attachment Parenting. However, for anyone who isn't obsessed with reading parenting books but is just looking for 1 or 2 basic ones to get started, those early chapters are a nice summary.

The 2nd half of the book was more relevant to me... providing advice about the different factors involved in being a nursing mom who works, pumps, etc.  And overall, the book gives a nice background history on women's rights with regard to being a mother in the workforce and also some interesting cultural information about breastfeeding and different parts of the world.  For instance, in one of the early chapters, the author sites a study from Tanka in South China.  According to this book, women who nurse typically do so with their right breast only.  And 80% of the breast cancer that develops in older women occurs in the left breast.  Pretty decent argument for breastfeeding, eh?