Book Review: Unbuttoned: Women Open Up About the Pleasures, Pains, and Politics of Breastfeeding

When my son was born 6 years ago I breastfed him for 9 months. I tried to make it a year but it just didn't happen. We had our ups and downs it was a rocky start and at 6 months I stopped nursing and pumped exclusively for another 3 months, but overall I loved it.

When I heard about Unbuttoned: Women Open Up About the Pleasures, Pains, and Politics of Breastfeeding I wanted to check it out. The book is edited by Dana Sullivan and Maureen Connolly and is a collection of essays about breastfeeding.

There is a foreword by Linda Murray, a preface, and then four parts with similarly themed essays in each. The parts were Latching On, Got Milk? On Empty, and Letting Go. The 223 page book has 25 essays.

There are so many aspects to breastfeeding, it is odd how something so personal can become everyday topics to so many people. Many many pregnant women are asked if they plan to breastfeed. Some of the essays comment on how everyone is so enthusiastic about it, but sometimes fail to mention the physical pain that can come with it.

All the essays are by women, fairly enough, and while almost all of them breastfeed for at least a little, one woman made the decision not to breastfeed even though her husband really really wanted her to. I actually liked that this wasn't just about how wonderful all people are who breastfeed. There are definitely both sides of the story though it does skew in favor of breastfeeding.

There are a few essays from mothers who breastfed longer than the typical recommendation of a year, one lady quite a bit longer who also talked about her experiences with La Leche League.

I enjoyed these essays. They are all from different women and there is a little bio about each author at the end of the essay. They include Rachel Zucker, an author of poetry books, Nancy Williams who led Virgin Mobile USA's e-commerce sales and marketing group, Jessica Restaino, an assistant professor of English at Montclair State University, and Fernanda Moore who is a book reviewer for the Nashville Scene and writer for other publications as well. Most have ties to writing in the published world, but not all. However I found all of their writing was well edited and easy to read.

If you enjoyed your experience breastfeeding you'd probably enjoy this book and you are thinking about breastfeeding in the future you'd probably enjoy this as well. Realistically this is a book for women only, sorry guys. I liked it and would recommend it easily.