This book I feel was very helpful to me even though my son was born early and breastfeeding attempts were unsuccessful. The book gives great insight to nursing successfully as well as working successfully while nursing, and I will pass this book to all of my friends that are pregnant and returning to work mothers in the future. I think first time breastfeeding mothers returning to work are very frightened and even intimidated by the thought and really need someone to help lay a timetable down (of course as a baseline, everyones life is a bit different so all will need to make some adjustments). this book really helped to give that needed structure and to let you know it is possible. The only thing I disliked about this book was the amount of talk about co-sleeping and some other opinions that get fluffed around, at times it feels a tid bit pushy, but if you can get past those frequent comments and hint arounds then its no problem. HIGHLY reccomend this book to returning to work mothers.

This book is heavy on pro-breastfeeding content, but actually a little light on specific topics such as how to estimate how much milk you will need to pump for your baby while you are at work. Also, the book is out of date in terms of pumps that it describes (e.g., no mention of the Avent Isis or the latest Medela models).

Gale Pryor is passionate about her subject and very serious (but not too). This is not a self-help style book full of lists and happy quotes. She provides lots of background information about breastfeeding and mothers working outside the home that is much more encouraging than, for instance, The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding, which treats going back to work as a choice we make for "extra money." And yet this book has the same (and more) practical detail about all sorts of breastfeeding concerns, from mastitis (ouch!) to how long to store breastmilk that's been pumped during work hours. Really helpful. Good attitude. Of course the La Leche League book is also worth having, it's just a little hard on working (outside the home) moms, in my opinion.

I don't spend much time reading and this book provided me with a ton of info in an easy to read, consise manner. The plan that Gale lays out for nursing moms to prepare for going back to work is absolutely the best. I know lots of nursing moms that returned to work and were constantly worried that they weren't pumping enough to feed their baby for the next day. I followed Gales guidelines and generally had 2 weeks to a month of milk in the freezer ready to go. I never worried about having to supplement with formula - even if I was out of town for a week on work. I believe it is the main reason I was able to nurse both my children for 14 months before they were fully weaned and work full time+ at a very stressful job. The book also provided lots of other good info to think about as well as resources (lacation rooms, what type of day care you want, interview questions, PT work schedules). I did not feel like Gale was a huge proponnet of co-sleeping. She did provide it as an option and provided info about why you might want to do it. But as with all her suggestions or thoughts I felt they were presented in a matter of fact manner and left it up to me to decide without adding a component of guilt - we all know that we put enough of that on ourselves already!

I'm back at work, and I read and re read this book every few days. Usually to remind myself why I do this. I didn't feel like it was co-sleeping propaganda. It described many tools to bonding with your child, and one of them (and you don't have to use it) is co-sleeping. This book tells you that it's the bonding that's important, not the method you use. This book continually tells you that you can do this. Just the support I needed!