The New Mom's Survival Guide to Breastfeeding and Going Back to Work
Starred review from January 19, 2015
Debut author Shortall strikes the perfect note for an advice book on what some readers might see as a niche topic—pumping and storing milk while at work—skipping past the breastfeeding basics addressed elsewhere to dive straight into logistics. Shortall repeatedly assures her peers (high-powered career women) that “your worth as a mother is not measured in ounces” and takes a casual, keeping-it-real tone toward everything from “porn-star boobs” to pumping during conference calls. Topics include calculating the stash you need to keep your baby fed during the day, negotiating pumping time and space with your company, washing your pump in shared spaces with minimal embarrassment, traveling without your milk spoiling or being confiscated by the TSA, and, when it just isn’t working for you, weaning. It’s the kind of information an intimate, chatty friend who’s done it all could share in a few lunchtimes and a session on the couch—did you know you can sterilize coffee cups in the microwave and pump milk into them?—except that not every mom has those kinds of friends. Having such helpful tips and tricks in print will be a godsend to the back-to-work mom who doesn’t have time for everything to go any less than smoothly.