Overall, this is well done, an all encompassing review of breastfeeding, its potential complications, and ways ahead from a female, maternal perspective. From this viewpoint, this truly has the potential to be motivational and inspirational for mothers, physicians and others alike.

The author is a mother and an ear, nose and throat physician. Quite a relevant blend of talent and trainings!

As a male physician, hoping to learn more about breastfeeding, my key takeaways are:
-approximately 25% of woman/newborns dyads can't make breastfeeding successful
-even though the milk the body can make is free, the process itself is not
-most healthcare providers (including physicians) have limited-to-no training in breastfeeding
-mothers need to make sure they are taking care of themselves to be successful with breastfeeding
-the author goes into great detail with ways to face breastfeeding and its challenges

I received a free copy of this book compliments of NetGalley and Rodale books. I am a male Family Medicine physician who cares for newborns and breastfeeding mothers hoping to learn more. My key criticisms are:
-there seems to be quite a negative undertone for Family Medicine physicians at times. Though I am reading this to learn more, I question the level of negative undertone for Family Physicians - not all of us are made or trained the same. Honestly I was a bit offended with some of the implications towards Family Medicine at times.
-though us males probably deserve some of the negative contemplation that is throughout, I question if the level of talking down is needed.

Overall I think this is a productive read. Given my criticisms, I have decided to downgrade to 3 stars.

Great read very informative, with all of the information on the internet it's great to have a resource from a trusted professional

This is a decent reference guide with a neutral perspective. Most of it was pretty common knowledge for moms who have breastfed and some of it is outdated, despite it recently coming out. For instance, in the US, most insurance companies cover a free electric pump, whereas the author states it needs to be purchased as it is not covered. Not a huge deal, but it would be helpful for first time moms to know it is an option.

As a new mom, when I saw this book I had to consider it. My baby is four months old and I’m still breastfeeding, so while I’m not new to it I hoped there would still be more I could learn.

Dr. Linda Dahl is an Ear, Nose, and Throat doctor that started specializing in helping breastfeeding moms by performing procedures on their babies to fix their gape. I thought her approach was one of the most reasonable ones I’ve ever read. She encourages breastfeeding yet also remains realistic about all of the challenges that one can encounter while breastfeeding. I thought she was very thorough in explaining what may be going wrong based on what you are experiencing.

And she acknowledges how confusing all of the different advice can be, which I personally found to be true. It was very frustrating to receive conflicting advice from the pediatrician, midwife, nurse, and lactation consultant after I gave birth. It left me feeling so confused and unsure what to do in those first days of my baby’s life. Had I read this before, it might have given me more confidence in the route I wanted to take and what advice I should follow the most.

What before was a magical mystery to me is now a beautiful process I can recognize and feel knowledgeable about. There was not too much I didn’t already know from all of the research I’ve done since embarking on my breastfeeding journey, but I really enjoyed the history section which shed some light on why there is a lot of conflicting information on the subject. Were I to start breastfeeding now, I may have been able to identify my issues with oversupply and prevent mastitis (which I unfortunately ended up with, twice).

The only part of the book that did not appeal to me was when she preached about frenulectomies. I think it is great that she has been so successful with this procedure, but she basically said that not many people know how to diagnose the root cause requiring one, nor knows how to perform one effectively. It seemed like unless you are able to have Dr. Dahl do it, you are out of luck. It seemed like this would be better presented to the medical community so that they can catch up with what she has established. But I guess if I felt my baby had this issue I could cite her to my own doctor.

Overall, I felt the book was very interesting, easy to read, informative, and encouraging. I liked her repeated message that breastfeeding should be your reward after going through pregnancy and giving birth, and it gave me a fresh perspective on breastfeeding with my baby today. I often read this book while breastfeeding and it was a great reminder to enjoy this bonding time with my baby.

Thank you to NetGalley and Rodale Books for an ARC of this book.