Rating: 
Summary: if you only buy one book on Breastfeeding, this is the one.
Review: This is THE book to own if you are serious about breastfeeding. Also has lots of advise about going back to work and breastfeeding, troubleshooting and even on dicipline. If you need to look up something quickly or just want to read it cover to cover, like I did, this is the book. I just can't say enough good things about it, a must have!
Rating:
Summary: Very Informative!
Review: My sister-in-law sent me this book when I was pregnant with my first child 28 years ago. I read and used this book through the pregnancies and infancies of both of my children. It proved to be a great help for me. I was 18 and uninformed about many things relating to breastfeeding. This book was a godsend! Breastfeeding is wonderful and I encouraged all my friends and family to try. The feeling is undescribable. Needless to say I no longer need the book, but I loaned my copy and it was never returned. I ordered two, one for a friend's daughter and one for me. If I ever get to be a grandmother I will give it to my daughter-in-law or daughter.
Rating: 
Summary: Don't waste your time
Review: My mother and mother-in-law both recommended this book since I am planning to breastfeed my baby (which is due any day now). However, I was very disappointed. The information presented is very biased and does not take into account differing opinions and lifestyles. I was made to think that I'm a horrible mother and love my baby less if for some reason I decide that breastfeeding does not work for me, if I give my baby a pacifier, if I can bear to leave him to go to work, if I don't let him sleep in bed with me. While it started with practical information about breastfeeding, it only proceeded to be a springboard for LLL beliefs. If you want to be encouraged that you're doing just fine and that your decisions don't reflect your love for your baby, I recommend trying something else.
Rating: 
Summary: Lots of philosophy, not enough practical help
Review: I completely believe in breastmilk for babies. So the dogmatic stance of this book didn't offend me at first. However, despite my following this book's advice, I had horrible problems nursing my newborn children. Five different lactation consultants, including a counselor from the La Leche League, couldn't figure out the problem, or help my babies nurse. Meanwhile, I got mastitis over and over again. This book made me feel that if I couldn't get breastfeeding right, there was something wrong with me. That my baby would suffer, that I am a bad parent for having to go to formula. If breastfeeding is so natural, why couldn't I do it? Am I some sort of Darwinian reject? With all the problems I had breastfeeding, my first baby lost 1 pound the first week of her life. And I was a nervous wreck from my sore nipples, mastitis and worry. What went wrong? I still don't know. This book makes it seem so easy, and implies if you do have problems, they're easily surmountable with a little effort and patience. That wasn't true for me. This book made me feel that feeding formula, or even breast milk from a bottle, would be tantamount to child abuse, but with my problems breastfeeding I ended up having little choice. It would be a kindness for the authors to acknowledge that sometimes the bottle is the best and wisest choice for the baby, and that sometimes no matter how hard you try, breastfeeding just doesn't happen, or happen in time before the baby starves to death.
Rating:
Summary: To much
Review: I found the book to be great as far as teaching you how to physically nurse. However, I felt that a lot of the information the book provided was to extreme and the LLL made you feel like an awful parent if you did not do everything to their extreme. An example would be that you are shutting up your baby by using a pacifier. The book goes on to say that in German pacifier means dummy, but last I checked in English it means to pacify and that's what it does. I agree that you can abuse it, but like everything else you need to use it in moderation. I do not recommend this book to anyone who is iffy about nursing because this book will turn you away, making you think that you have to follow their rules and that it's a lot harder then it really is.
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Summary: Very helpful and accurate information about breastfeeding
Review: This book was a great help to me when I breastfed my now almost 2 year old (fully weaned at 21 months). I encountered great difficulties with breastfeeding at first. However, through reading this book and support from other breastfeeding moms, I discovered that most of the problems I encountered were common and with a little work between me and my daughter, could be overcome so we could enjoy a wonderful, mutually beneficial breastfeeding experience. Unfortunately, there is not an overwhelming support system for breastfeeding moms in our society. Consequently, many moms, when encountering problems or disinterest in breastfeeding, switch to the bottle out of dire frustration, misinformation, and lack of support. This book does not push any propaganda, but gives accurate, trustworthy, and pertinent information about the many extreme benefits of breastfeeding. I want to encourage any mother trying to decide whether to breastfeed, encountering any type of breastfeeding problems, or in need of any type of breastfeeding support to read this book.
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Summary: Other books are more informative
Review: This book was the original breastfeeding book. It was helpful in raising awareness about the benefits of breastfeeding, and about our right to breastfeed. However, it is now largely LLL propoganda, and very little information. It offers NO help with any problems--which are actually very common (about the only recommendation offered for any type of problem is "go to bed with your infant"). Dr. Mom's Guide to Breastfeeding and The Nursing Mother's Companion are much more helpful because they contain much more actual information. In particular, Dr. Mom acknowledges that breastfeeding doesn't always work and that the most important thing is the health of the child and the sanity of the mother (breast alone isn't best all the time).
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Summary: A must-have book for nursing moms!
Review: I bought a copy of this book when I was pregnant and I don't think I would have been able to keep breastfeeding without it. I have to disagree with those who say it doesn't address possible difficulties. It covers everything you could want to know about breastfeeding, and has good advice for how to cope with just about any problem. Perhaps it's not well indexed if someone had trouble finding info on mastitis, because it's in there! I had mastitis twice and this book was indispensible. It offers the support nursing mothers need and can't always get from friends, doctors and family.
Rating: 
Summary: Informative about the pleasant aspects
Review: This book covers all the wonderful things about breastfeeding - of which there are a lot. For anyone looking for encouragement for breastfeeding, and/or reasons to give friends and family about why you want to breastfeed, it's a great book.However, if you've already decided to breastfeed, and are looking for something to get you through the tough parts, I can't recommend it. As far a reader could tell from this book, there are no tough parts. My fear is that someone having a difficult time with breastfeeding could decide that something must be really wrong, and quit in discouragement believing that other women don't have such difficulties. Having breastfed my first child to 20 months, and at one year and counting with my second, I can tell you that there are very tough moments in breastfeeding. LLL would be doing women more of a service if they didn't softsoap it, or use the soft-focus filter on all the possible problems.
Rating:
Summary: Not helpful if you are having problems breastfeeding
Review: I own this book, and recently consulted it while struggling with a bout of severe mastitis while at the same time wondering how to stop my six month old from biting me. I looked at the index for "mastitis" and found NOTHING. I looked at the index under "biting" and found only references to toddler biting, not infant biting. I had very few problems breastfeeding my daughter until she weaned herself at 10 months, but breastfeeding my second child has been more of a challenge, and this book is no help at all. In my view, the book is more a platform for selling La Leche League's parenting philosophies than a real help to breastfeeding mothers experiencing difficulties. La Leche League has some admirable goals and philosophies, but so many women stop breastfeeding because they experience challenges like mastitis or biting, and this book fails to even recognize those problems.
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