[babylove2007]

Has anyone read these books by Vicky Iovine? My sister lent them to me and I am finding them very anti-bf'ing in addition to anti-AP/natural childbirth. The points made in the books are as follows. I'm going to paraphrase the main points rather than quoting text so I don't violate the UA copyright policy.

--Breastfeeding and pregnancy will make you unattractive to your husband
--It will not help you burn calories--that's a myth from the LLL. In fact it might even make you gain.
--The health benefits of bf'ing are there, but that's similar to eating your veggies everyday and avoiding McD's. Most people don't do those things and are fine, and the benefits of bf'ing are just as trivial.
--The author weaned each of her children sooner and sooner and found bf'ing inconvenient to her and her body
--If you want to "try" bf'ing then go for it, but it's perfectly understandable if you quit because it's such a pain
--If your husband wants his "playthings" back, you should wean
--If your baby might be lactose intolerant, you should bottle feed because lactose intolerance is a reaction to human as well as cow's milk. Many babies can't tolerate mom's milk.
--a lot of other points that made me angry

The books were written almost 10-13 years ago so I'm not surprised if the science is out of date. But they are still being sold and could really turn a lot of women off to attempting to breastfeed. From the comments on Amazon it seems that many people were also bothered by the books. Has anyone else read either one? Thoughts?

 

[bellymama]

yeah, i hated those books.
i liked "pregnancy sucks" for a more humorous take on pregnancy.

 

[~Heyokha~]

ugh.. I hated all those detached, mainstream books too. It can really take some searching to find your niche!!

 

[sophiekat]

didn't she just release a new edition of the pg guide?
i have a lot of issues with her stances on bf and circ, i wonder if she updated it any? the only redeeming feature i found was her "at least give nursing a shot" attitude -- i know a few women who read that and figured they'd at least try to bf rather than immediately going to formula, so at least their babes got some.

 

[babylove2007]

If there is a new edition, I'll have to check. My sister gave me the 1995 one.

I also liked how she encouraged attempting to bf, it was the "go ahead and quit if you don't like it" attitude and some of the medical misinfo that got to me.

 

[tuansprincess]

sounds like some pamphlets need to be slipped into these books on library and bookstore shelves!

:

 

[pinksprklybarefoot]

I didn't agree with a lot of the things she wrote, either. Especially the part about not doing anything crazy and having a homebirth with your first baby.

:

She does say, however, that for her girlfriends that stuck with BFing and got past the difficult part, it became a rewarding experience.

 

[dillonandmarasmom]

I was handed down one from a friend. Didn't read too much once I got the *feel* of the author's ideology...

 

[dillonandmarasmom]

Wanted to add, I did have Diaper DIaries...it's pretty cute and pro bf.

 

[Caden's Mom]

Eh. I hope no one takes those books seriously as parenting advice.

 

[paradoxia13]

Someone gave me the pregnancy one. [email protected] thing made me so angry, I tore it up before I threw it away so nobody else could read it.

~heather

 

[babylove2007]

Quote:

Originally Posted by paradoxia13 Someone gave me the pregnancy one. [email protected] thing made me so angry, I tore it up before I threw it away so nobody else could read it. ~heather

Hee, yeah I would do that too if it weren't borrowed!

 

[Thalia the Muse]

I mostly got soooo tired of hearing about how she used to be a Playboy bunny, and her husband (billionaire rap producer Jimmy Iovine) found her utterly repulsive to touch or look at when she was pregnant because she was so disgustingly fat and hideous, and by the way has she mentioned yet that she's a size four and she used to be a Playboy Bunny?

On the pro-BF side, she points out that you might as well do it because it doesn't ruin your perfect, sexy breasts -- pregnancy has already ruined your perfect, sexy breasts forever, so you have nothing to lose!

 

[whateverdidiwants]

She also advocated dyeing your hair while you're pregnant because your husband might leave you if he sees a grey hair.

 

[Thalia the Muse]

Basically, I read those books and think "Dang, Jimmy Iovine is just as big a jerk as you would expect him to be."

 

[miss_sonja]

She also has some really nasty comments about home birth. I found her books offensive and just plain misinformed. Really annoying that they're still in print.

 

[melikahiwa]

i'm so happy i didn't read these! Sounds pretty awful!

 

[mommy2caroline]

i was given the one about buying baby gear... it just listed all this junk that I knew I didn't need. She decided that co-sleepers must not be safe just based on her own opinion. Apparently it didn't influence me... I never bought a crib.

 

[pixiepunk]

i hated that book with a purple passion. a friend of mine loaned it to me when i was pg. if it had not belonged to someone else, i seriously would have set it on fire. i stopped reading when i got to the part where she says that if you're pg with your first, don't even think about using a midwife, followed by some assanine made-up example of some pretend friend who didn't realize how badly she was going to want that darn epidural... or something, it was four years ago when i read it, but it still makes me angry when i think about it

: . blech.

i don't even think i made it to the chapter on bf'ing.

 

[rmzbm]

I bought that book cuz I thought it would be funny - it was anything but.