- Unbuttoned
- Women Open Up About the Pleasures, Pains, and Politics of Breastfeeding
- By Dana Sullivan and Maureen Connolly
-
-
Nursing a baby—it’s the most simple, natural thing in the world, right? Then why is it so fraught and freighted for so many women? In Unbuttoned, a collection of essays edited by Dana Sullivan and Maureen Connolly, 25 women share their thoughts and feelings about breastfeeding, all from the standpoint of personal experience. By turns enlightening, entertaining, moving, and thought provoking, their stories are sure to get readers talking.
The essays are as varied as women themselves. Best-selling author Julia Glass describes nursing her two sons after being treated for breast cancer. Rebecca Walker remembers breastfeeding her seriously ill baby in the neonatal intensive care unit. And humorist Suzanne Schlosberg milks the logistics of nursing twins for laughs, while columnist Patricia Berry defends her decision to bottle-feed her three daughters. Linda Murray, editor-in-chief of BabyCenter.com, contributes a thoughtful foreword. The essays are organized in a way that echoes the chronology of the nursing experience itself. In Part One, Latching On, women share their stories about starting breastfeeding; by Part Four, Letting Go, they’ve moved on to the sometimes-wistful, sometimes-welcome process of weaning. In these pages are laughter and tears, love and longing, tenderness and temper tantrums—and above all, a multifaceted portrait of what it means to nurture a baby.
Unbuttoned makes a wonderful gift for new or expectant mothers, not to mention their partners. It’s also an intriguing selection for book groups or moms’ groups, who will surely find much to discuss among the essays. Even women whose nursing days are well behind (or ahead) of them will find food for thought in this insightful collection.
CONTRIBUTING ESSAYISTS
Heidi Raykeil
Deborah Garrison
Julia Glass
Ann Matturro Gault
Rebecca Walker
Suzanne Schlosberg
Rachel Zucker
Paula Spencer
Daryn Eller
Rachel Sarah
Leslie Crawford
Dawn Porter
Nancy M. Williams
Alice Elliott Dark
Patricia Berry
Pamela Kruger
Jessica Restaino
Jill Hamburg Coplan
Stephanie Kilroy
Dana Sullivan
Fernanda Moore
Maura Rhodes
Melissa Balmain
Catherine Newman
Jill Christman
Book Details
- Paperback, $12.95
ISBN 978-1-55832-397-1
- Pub Month: April 2009
- Total Pages: 240 pg.
- Trim Size: 5 x 8
From the Press Room
Praise
“Unbuttoned is what every mom wishes she knew before she started on the breastfeeding journey.”
—Laura Berman Fortgang, author of Living Your Best Life and Now What?
“Every woman who becomes a mother will recognize herself somewhere in Unbuttoned, which offers a wide range of intensely personal and sometimes political perspectives on breastfeeding. These personal essays—frank, funny, and profound—provide a welcome antidote to the bewildering array of how-to manuals and advice books that populate new mothers’ shelves.”
—Christina Baker Kline, author of The Way Life Should Be and editor of Child of Mine: Original Essays on Becoming a Mother
“I laughed! I cried! My milk let down! The A-list writers in Unbuttoned eloquently express the vast spectrum of emotions wrought by the rise of ‘breast is best.’ ”
—Lisa Moran, editor-in-chief of Babytalk magazine
“Unbuttoned is wonderful! As I read the essays, I experienced anew those special seasons of my life when I breastfed my own three sons, now grown. As one of the book’s contributors so aptly describes it, nursing is ‘God’s reward, perhaps, for the hard work of motherhood.’ ”
—Kathy Peel, founder and CEO of Family Manager Coaching and author of The Busy Mom’s Guide to a Happy, Organized Home