Does it really matter in the 21st century whether babies are breastfed? After all, millions of women feed their children cows’-milk formula and they seem to do perfectly well. The answer is that although babies can be adequately fed with the milk of another animal, breastfeeding is provably the best and safest way of nourishing your baby, wherever in the world you live. Experts agree that breastfeeding confers unique benefits on both mother and baby.

Breast is Best was written 35 years ago and has been updated many times since. It is based on the collective wisdom of countless women’s feedback; on the author’s personal experience as a mother with many years of breastfeeding behind her; on the inputs over decades from those she has helped, worked with and taught; and on research reported in peer-reviewed medical journals.

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Acknowledgements
• Contents
• Chapter Contents
• Introduction
• One: Breastfeeding today
  • How popular is breastfeeding?
  • Why not bottle-feed?
  • School education
  • Mother's age
  • Friends, relatives and neighbours
  • Professional back-up
  • Work
  • Governments and non-governmental organizations
  • The status of mothers
  • The media
  • Peer support
• Two: Best for baby
  • Less illness
  • Fewer infections
  • Less obesity
  • Lower blood pressure
  • Less allergy and food sensitivity
  • Less dental decay
  • Better jaw and mouth development
  • Less colic
  • Less coeliac disease
  • Less pyloric stenosis
  • Less likelihood of meconium plugs and meconium ileus
  • Less appendicitis
  • Less colitis
  • Fewer complications in very-low-birthweight babies
  • Less acrodermatitis enteropathica
  • Fewer ‘cot deaths’
  • Less autoimmune disease
  • Less lymph-system cancer
  • More successful kidney transplants
  • Better brain and nerve development
  • Better visual development and eyesight
  • Less vitamin A deficiency
  • Enables spacing between children
  • Different activation of gut genes
  • Less prone to inflammation?
  • Healthier cholesterol?
  • Less heart disease?
  • Less breast cancer?
  • No ‘acidosis’
  • Less nappy rash?
  • Fewer inguinal hernias?
  • Different emotional and behavioural development?
  • Better attachment to mother?
  • Better mental-health development?
  • Possible disadvantages to your baby
• Three: Best for you
  • The biological perspective
  • Less bleeding after childbirth
  • Less breast cancer
  • Less ovary cancer
  • Less womb cancer
  • Less cyclical breast pain
  • Helps you get your figure back
  • More convenient
  • Cheaper
  • Can provide birth control
  • Better for bones
  • Less rheumatoid arthritis
  • Lower risk of high blood pressure
  • Lower cholesterol
  • Less diabetes
  • Less metabolic syndrome
  • Fewer heart attacks and strokes
  • Can reduce stress and boost motherly feelings
  • Closer bond with your baby?
  • Satisfying?
  • Enjoyable?
  • Fulfilling?
  • Empowering?
  • Possible disadvantages to you
• Four: Breast milk – the perfect food
  • Fat, protein and lactose in different mammalian milks
  • Differences between breast milk and cows' milk
  • What breast milk contains
  • Coloured milk
  • Breast milk's unique scent
  • How breast milk changes
• Five: Preparation and pregnancy
  • What to eat
  • Your weight
  • Alcohol
  • Smoking
  • Choosing where to have your baby
  • Make a birth plan
  • Plan for when you go home
  • Involve your partner
  • Choosing how to feed your baby
  • Your breasts could know whether you're having a girl or a boy before you do!
  • Ante-natal (pre-natal) classes
  • Information pamphlets
  • Health professionals
  • Breastfeeding support groups
  • Furniture and equipment
  • Shopping and housework
  • Help at home
  • Clothes
  • Breast care
• Six: How breastfeeding works
  • Your breasts
  • Breast changes in pregnancy
  • Hormones and milk production
  • The let-down reflex
  • Different looking drops and sprays at the nipple
  • Leaking
  • How your baby gets milk
  • Demand and supply
  • Length of feeds
  • ‘Feeds’?
  • Babies' breasts
• Seven: Breastfeeding your baby
  • The first cuddle – skin to skin
  • Getting comfortable
  • How your baby feeds
  • Wrapping your baby
  • Relaxing and enjoying your baby
  • What's your baby getting?
  • When to feed your baby
  • How often to feed?
  • Waking your baby
  • One breast or two?
  • How long should a feed last?
  • Your baby's feeding pattern and behaviour
  • Tips for daytime feeds
  • Daytime sleeps
  • Going to sleep at the breast
  • Other ways of getting him off to sleep
  • How long your baby sleeps
  • ‘Rooming-in’ in hospital
  • Sleeping and night feeds
  • Breast milk only
  • How your breasts feel
  • Dummies (pacifiers)
  • Nappy (diaper) changing
  • Your baby's bowel motions
  • Wind
  • Regurgitation
  • Crying
  • Normal weight loss in a baby
  • A baby's weight gain
  • Some everyday challenges
  • Going out with your baby
  • Travel and holidays
• Eight: Some useful skills
  • Holding your baby
  • Good positioning and latching on
  • Expressing
  • Reverse-pressure softening
  • ‘Switch-nursing’
  • Pumping
  • Storing milk
  • Using a supplementer
  • Milk banks
• Nine: Looking after yourself
  • Breast and nipple care
  • Leaking
  • Breast pads
  • Wearing a bra at night
  • Sore perineum
  • Helpers
  • Rest, relaxation and sleep
  • Visitors
  • Your food
  • Drinks
  • Vegetarians and vegans
  • Is there anything you shouldn't eat?
  • What if you don't eat enough?
  • Slimming
  • Looking after your breasts
  • Exercise
  • Smoking
  • Contraception
  • When periods return (page 67)
  • Shopping
  • Seeing friends
  • Single mothers
  • How you feel
  • Assertiveness skills
  • Managing criticism
  • A last word
• Ten: Your milk supply
  • Not enough milk – the commonest challenge
  • How to increase your milk supply
  • What if I can't breastfeed?
  • Wet nurses and donated milk
  • Try again next time
  • Too much milk
  • When you want to stop (see also page 322)
  • Re-starting your milk supply
• Eleven: Other common challenges
  • Sore, cracked or blanched nipples
  • Breast pain
  • Breast lump
  • Overweight and obesity
  • Challenging feeders
  • Low birthweight
• Twelve: Some special situations
  • You have twins – or more
  • Your baby has difficulty sucking, milking or swallowing
  • Your baby is ill or in hospital
  • Your baby has diarrhoea
  • Your baby has low blood sugar (hypoglycaemia)
  • Tongue tie
  • Cleft lip and/or palate
  • Learning difficulty
  • Neurological or neuro-muscular condition
  • Your baby isn't thriving
  • Your baby needs an anaesthetic
  • Your baby has a rare illness with implications for breastfeeding
  • Your baby's immunizations
  • Rhesus antibodies
  • You are unwell
  • Breast surgery
  • X-rays
  • Medications or other drugs
  • Environmental contaminants
  • Breastfeeding an adopted baby
  • Feeding someone else's baby
• Thirteen: Feeding an older baby
  • Introducing other foods
  • What should you give?
  • Drinks
  • How long to go on breastfeeding
  • Breastfeeding during a period
  • Breastfeeding in pregnancy
  • Breastfeeding an older child and a baby
  • Stopping breastfeeding
• Fourteen: Breastfeeding and sex
  • Mother, lover ... or both?
  • The pleasures of breastfeeding
  • Men's and women's views of sex and breastfeeding
  • What breasts represent
  • Breastfeeding and sex
  • Off sex after childbirth?
  • Focusing on your partner
  • Focusing on you
• Fifteen: Breastfeeding and work
  • Support at home
  • Support at work
  • Combining work and breastfeeding
• Sixteen: Mainly for fathers
  • Why you're so important to breastfeeding
  • Some common concerns
  • You and your baby
  • Benefits of breastfeeding to you
  • Looking after yourself
  • Pass on the message
• Seventeen: A word for helpers
• Resources
  • Recommended reading list
  • Breast pumps
  • Freezer bags
  • Feeding cups
  • Nursing bras
  • Breast pads
  • Nipple cream
  • Breast shells
  • Breast shields
  • Avent Niplettes
  • Supplementers
  • Open-sided cribs and cots
  • Valley cushion
  • Fertility prediction
  • Organizations
• Index