Hello, new mommies! What is your routine after giving birth to your little baby? It may be a little hard for you as this is your first-time journey. Right after you have conceived, you have to go through another challenging phase in your life which is the postpartum period. During this phase, you will be experiencing a roller coaster of emotions while taking care of your body as well as your newborn baby.
Many people think that after you have given birth, you can live a normal life back and the only difference is now you have a baby to take care of. Well, that is a wrong perception. Your life after you have conceived will be much more stressful than before. This is because, not only do you have to take care of your newborn baby’s well being, but you also need to focus on your physical and mental health as well.
Postpartum Period
You will be experiencing body aches, insomnia, fatigue and exhaustion during the first six to eight weeks time after giving birth. This period is what we called the postpartum period. Besides experiencing those problems, you also have to breastfeed your baby. Having a newborn baby at home for the first to two months can be stressful, especially for first-time parents. You may feel like you have to spend all of your time caring for your newborn, but do not forget to focus on your recovery and look after yourself.
During the postpartum period, you will be advised by the obstetrician to stay at home until you have healed. If you do not follow your doctor’s advice, the chances of you getting postpartum complications like blood clots, and infection are higher.
Breastfeeding
Obviously, breastfeeding is natural for mothers. But many people think that it is an easy and simple thing to do. Even if it is natural, that does not mean it is something easy. Especially for mothers who were just going through birth-giving. Most women nurse their babies as it is the most healthy, budget-friendly and easiest way to feed them.
Some women may find it more difficult than they expected it to be. Even with all of the nursing advice from friends, sisters, and aunts, it still might be difficult to breastfeed your child because not every newborn has the same characteristics as your own baby.
A mother who breastfeeds their newborns encounters many problems. If you are looking for breastfeeding products to help you with breastfeeding problems, you can buy nipple shield for breastfeeding mothers Malaysia. This is because, mothers with newborns may experience breastfeeding problems such as low milk supply, engorgement, sore nipples, clogged milk ducts, and infection. These problems can be very painful for mothers to handle. Therefore, the saying of breastfeeding is natural and easy is completely wrong.
New mommies, may have many questions and enquiries about breastfeeding. So, looking for reliable sources for your questions is essential so that you do not get the wrong information from the wrong sources.
Reading books can be one of the options for you to get the right knowledge about breastfeeding. There are many different books that you can get online or in your nearby bookstore. In this article, we have curated a recommendation list of the best breastfeeding books to help answer your questions and go through this journey easily.
1. The Nursing Mother’s Companion by Kathleen Huggins
This book has been recommended by many obstetricians and professionals. New mommies will instantly fall in love with this book as it provides very helpful guidelines and advice and it will also help answer their curiosity. Kathleen Huggins provides all the information breastfeeding women need to overcome obstacles and effectively nurse their babies. Not only that, but this book also gives advice on how to care for yourself during the postpartum period and how to use nursery equipment properly.
For more than 20 years, The Nursing Mother’s Companion by Kathleen Huggins has been among the top best-selling books about nursing and breastfeeding, with over one million copies sold.
2. Lactivate! A User’s Guide to Breastfeeding by Jill Krause and Chrisie Rosenthal
If you are looking for a book with a non-serious style of writing, then this book is good for you as it has a fun writing style. This book is full of non-judgmental advice that provides you with the most up-to-date breastfeeding information to help ease your breastfeeding journey.
This book will help you resolve common breastfeeding issues and questions that you may have in a simple way. It is an interesting book for new mommies as it will guide you from A to Z. This book is not like a typical informational boring book. It does provide a lot of knowledge but with colourful illustrations, for you to enjoy and cheer up.
3. Ina May’s Guide to Breastfeeding by Ina May Gaskin
Ina May Gaskin has a lot of experience in taking care of pregnant women, new parents, mothers and newborn babies. This book is being recommended by many people as the writing of this book is based on the author’s experience. Ina May’s Guide to Nursing is very helpful for mothers as it provides chock-full of practical advice, medical facts, and real-life examples that will help you understand how breastfeeding works as well as how to use it to strengthen your bond with your baby and your own body.
This book covers all sorts of topics regarding breastfeeding and including nursing challenges, care products, medications, how to nurse while working, sleeping arrangements and much more.
4. Work. Pump. Repeat. by Jessica Shortall
This book is a very recommended book for working mommies. Jessica Shortall is one of the working mothers with two children. She wrote this book to show moral support for working mothers and to laugh and cry with them since she is also experienced the same things before. This is a practical and non-judgemental book suitable for first-time mothers who had to juggle between working and breastfeeding. This book is full of advice, moral support and guideline for them, working mommies.
5. The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding by Diane Wiesinger and Diana West
This book is one of the best-sellers and it is a well-loved classic book. The Womanly Art is an old book and was published in 1958. The book is now in its 8th edition and has not been updated since 2010. This book is written to support nursing mothers and empower them to stand tall and proud.
It does not matter whether you are a working mother, stay at home mother, first-time mother or mother of five, you will be able to gain a lot of knowledge from this book as it provides nursing stories, information, advice, and covers everything from breastfeeding preparation to nursing cues for their newborn babies.