The Milk Memos: A Book Review
My rating: an average 4.5 out of 5, with five points for enjoyability and appeal to working and pumping mothers, and four points for accuracy.
Description: Paperback book published March 15, 2007.
Subject: Advice for mothers who work outside the home and continue breastfeeding and pumping.
Price: List price U.S. $13.95 (less on Amazon.com).
Authors: Cate Colburn-Smith and Andrea Serrette
One of the best ways to promote breastfeeding is through mother-to-mother support. This new book speaks from one working mother to another, and it’s a must-have for all working and pumping moms. It’s called The Milk Memos: How Real Moms Learned to Mix Business with Babies-and How You Can, Too
The story of how the book came about is almost as interesting as the book itself.
It all began when IBM manager Cate Colburn-Smith sat down in the company’s employee lactation room, shed a few silent tears, and wrote this on a paper towel: I’m a new mom and today is my first day back at work. Is anyone else using this room?
That paper towel note led to a series of notebooks in which many IBM employees shared their breastfeeding, pumping and parenting wisdom. More importantly though, the moms shared their emotions and built friendships. The resulting book offers insight into the experience of working and breastfeeding mothers. I realize it’s not representative of all working mothers — the mothers at IBM are lucky to have a lactation room and time to pump. Still, it’s a reader-friendly, working-mother friendly book that blends practical advice with heart-warming (and sometimes heart-breaking) stories of pumping on the job.
One of the first things that I noticed about the book was its unusual size — more square than rectangular — making it easy to hold with one hand in case you’re, say, pumping or nursing and don’t have both hands free. Then I immediately got drawn in by the stories of the mothers. The characters and journal entries included in the book are composites of the experiences of many mothers at IBM. The journal entries are interspersed with helpful tips and advice for other mothers re-entering the work force after having a baby.
As much as I enjoyed the book, a few points jumped out at me for their inaccuracy or at least their misleading nature. One of the characters writes about “Ferberizing” her baby–letting him cry-it-out at a few months of age so he was sleeping through the night by four months. I totally cringed when I read that. Even Dr. Ferber no longer recommends sleep training for babies under six months of age! Crying-it-out is harmful in many ways, but for a young breastfed baby it can lead to failure to thrive! I understand that the episode is representative of what some mothers do, but it’s irresponsible to present that story even in conjunction with opposing viewpoints and information on infant sleep.
In another entry, a mother comments that some squeamish relatives should be given a copy of the Kansas state law “which protects a woman’s right to breastfeed anywhere she has a right to be–like on the sofa in a house for God’s sake.” That’s an accurate statement of the law in Kansas but an incorrect interpretation of it. It’s my understanding that a woman’s right to breastfeed in public does not extend to someone’s private home. You don’t have a “right to be” in someone’s private home like you have a right to be in a public accommodation such as a privately-owned restaurant or movie theater. Of course I think everyone should allow breastfeeding in a private home and if someone doesn’t allow breastfeeding I’d question whether I’d want to visit that person in the first place.
Finally, the discussion of breastfeeding as birth control troubled me. The book accurately states that the Lactational Amenorrhea Method is not a foolproof method of contraception, especially if you’re not nursing frequently and exclusively. What it doesn’t state explicitly though is that it’s not reliable birth control if a mother is pumping! The pump just does not suppress ovulation as well as the baby at the breast does, and that seems like a key distinction to make in a book offering advice to mothers who are pumping throughout the work day.
In spite of a few inaccuracies, I enjoyed The Milk Memos: How Real Moms Learned to Mix Business with Babies-and How You Can, Too
Related Stories
POSTED IN: books, breastfeeding, mothering, pumping
11 opinions for The Milk Memos: A Book Review
Lara
May 20, 2007 at 10:01 am
Do you have any hard data on pumping (exclusive or part-time) and LAM? On women double pumping and yielding enough milk frequently and consistently, enough to feed their babies exclusively and/or feed exclusively with some left over?
I’m asking because I know plenty of women whose cycle resumption has been delayed a year or even more while EPing - my anecdotal impression is that the prevalence of these long delays is at least as high among these dedicated EPing mums as among directly-nursing mums.
thanks
Angela
May 20, 2007 at 11:48 am
Hi Lara! I’m not a proponent of LAM in the first place. Add in pumping or hand-expressing and the risk of pregnancy goes up to 5 to 6%. I have no doubt that many women go without periods while pumping. The problem is that there’s a chance a woman will ovulate before her first postpartum period, so the absence of a period alone is not a good indicator (and outside the 6-month window in which LAM can be effective for some women, it becomes more and more likely that a woman will ovulate before her first period).
For more on this see:
http://www.christiancontraception.com/lam.php
http://www.babycenter.com/refcap/baby/postpartumsex/1477017.html#3
http://www.contraceptiononline.org/slides/slide01.cfm?q=ovulation+risk&dpg=1
This article says pumping or hand-expression increases a woman’s risk of pregnancy from 2% to 5 to 6%:
http://www.reproline.jhu.edu/english/6read/6multi/tgwg/Tgla__e.htm
One discussion cited this study (which says that not all forms of pumping are equal) although the abstract does not reveal the LAM discussion in particular:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=pubmed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=1741218
Natalie
May 20, 2007 at 7:37 pm
On the LAM front: Went back to work at 3 months + pumping 3x a day at work + no supplementing of any sort (food or formula) = had a period within the month. So yes, I agree, that should be highlighted a little more carefully within the book. ALSO, no mention was made of the fact that menstruating can have an extremely negative effect on milk supply, which is important to be prepared for.
On the book front: As a working/pumping mom, I loved this book more than any other of the many many many baby/b-feeding books I’ve read (despite the above-mentioned omissions). It hit home more times than I could count, and sustained me through several “is this really worth it?” moments. So I second the great review–this one’s a keeper.
Lara
May 20, 2007 at 8:05 pm
Thanks for that. Reading between the lines on these secondary sources, it looks like there is perahsp one study that has looked at the issue, and it’s one of the ten studies referenced here:
http://www.reproline.jhu.edu/english/6read/6multi/tgwg/Tgla__e.htm
I don’t suppose you know which one? I’d really like to look at their methodolology before commenting.
Either way, a drop to 5% effectiveness is a drop to around the effectiveness of the mini-pill (progesterone-only pill); this is well within the bounds of acceptable efficacy for many women, so I don’t think it can be dismissed outright. And it may well be that their methodology was suspect (babies supplemented, inadequate pumping equipment, gaps too large, tiny sample space, etc.)
Eilat
May 21, 2007 at 7:53 am
This sounds like a wonderful book! I pumped at work for around 10 months (from 4 to 14 months). Im still nursing my son at 21 months, but I don’t bother pumping during the day. Pumping was a pain, but at times it really made me feel closer to my baby. While being away for 8 hours a day, it gave me time to focus on him and knowing that he would be getting my milk really motivated me to keep going.
My sister-in-law just went back to work (her son is 8 months) and is pumping. Its a huge transition for her since she had 8 months of maternity leave (how wonderful!). I think I might get her this book to motivate her to keep going.
Thanks for the recommendation!
Angela
May 21, 2007 at 11:44 am
Natalie, thanks for sharing your experience! I’m glad to hear you also enjoyed the book.
Eilat, that’s wonderful you were able to pump at work for an extended period of time and now can go without pumping. Your sister-in-law can benefit from your example!
Lara, it would be interesting to find out more. I think as with any form of birth control its efficacy depends quite a bit on the user (i.e. taking the pill each day, breastfeeding often enough etc.) LAM can be a perfectly acceptable method of birth control for many women as long as they are informed of the requirements and risks. It would help too if women using LAM are aware of their fertility signs (basal body temperature (if they’re getting enough sleep for this to be accurate), cervical mucous and cervical position) as well.
julie
May 21, 2007 at 3:55 pm
Hi Ladies,
I just happened upon this website…as I’m pumping at work actually! I can attest that one can get pregnant without ever having a period, and while still pumping and exclusively breastfeeding. Hello, baby #3! I was told by a Le Leche leader that once you go 6 hours between feedings or pumpings you do start to ovulate again. That can sometimes happen during a busy workday. Currently, I am breastfeeding a 10 month old, and no period in site. But, I have learned my lesson and am practicing birth control. :)
Angela
May 22, 2007 at 5:27 am
Julie, I got a kick out of the fact that you came upon this article while you were pumping :) Thanks so much for taking the time to share your story.
Cate Colburn-Smith
May 22, 2007 at 8:17 am
Hi Angela, Natalie, Lara, Eilat, Julie and every one else reading this!
Cate Colburn-Smith here, co-author of The Milk Memos. I am thrilled to read this review of our book on Breastfeeding123. Thank you so much for the thorough and wise comments — both positive and negative. I apologize for the misrepresentations you pointed out. Some brief comments:
1. Ferberizing: you’re right — we tried to present a variety of common sleep philosophies without judgement. I’m sure you gathered that my co-author and I don’t advocate the Ferber approach, but we recognize that many parents are comfortable with it and find it effective. In the book, we should have somehow pointed out that the Ferber approach shouldn’t be used for babies less than 6 months of age.
2. Kansas breastfeeding law interpretation: good point — we weren’t thinking it through completely/technically when we made the leap, extending the “breastfeeding in public” law to breastfeeding in private. In-laws can set their own rules (with respect to breastfeeding) in their own homes.
3. Lactational Amenorrhea Method: it makes sense that the risk of pregnancy while *pumping* is higher than the risk of pregnancy while exclusively *breastfeeding*. We didn’t make this distinction in the book, but hope that readers will realize they *can* get pregnant while breastfeeding and/or pumping.
Should we be so lucky to release a second edition of the book, we will be sure to correct these sections!!
Mostly, we are grateful for the opportunity to have the book published in the first place, to be reaching and helping breastfeeding moms who have returned (or will return) to the workforce, and to have the book reviewed favorably by experts like yourself!
All the best, Cate Colburn-Smith
co-author of The Milk Memos and mommy to Charlotte (5) and Mary (3, and still breastfeeding at bed time!)
Angela
May 22, 2007 at 5:25 pm
Hi Cate! I have to say it’s pretty cool to blog about a book and then have one of the authors chime in! Thanks for your comment.
I think you’ve provided a wonderful, supportive resource for breastfeeding mothers. I’m sure it took courage, dedication and lots of effort to write the book and I congratulate you on its publication. Someday I hope to join the ranks of published authors (blogging is writing of course but it just isn’t the same as seeing a book in print!)
Eight Things You Don’t Know about This Breastfeeding Blogger
Jul 10, 2007 at 3:45 am
[…] Cate Colburn-Smith (see my review of The Milk Memos) tagged me for an “eight things” meme after she listed eight things you don’t […]
Have an opinion? Leave a comment: