Back-months

Taylor and Colino have written an excellent research-based guide to managing PMS. I have used the examples and guides found in the book to teach women in the clinical setting, and I have used it to teach nurse practitioner students about options for PMS management. I particularly like the straight forward suggestions that target healthy lifestyle choices. Women who follow the diet, exercise, and stress management guidelines that effectively manage symptoms of PMS have the added benefit of knowing they are contributing to their overall health. Thank you for this wonderful contribution to women's health.

I am a menopausal mother with a pubescent daughter. Both of us are free of hormonal troubles, thanks largely to the advice of this terrific book. It is so full of facts and figures, from both regular and alternative medicine. It covers every possible scenario. I can't imagine anyone that couldn't find a solution for their specific needs. This book is easy to use because each chapter relates to your specific interest, or you can read it cover to cover, which I suggest, since it has great advice on living a successful, healthful, stress free life. I particularly like how, at the end of a chapter, you're given ways to assess your condition and "to do" lists that help solve specific problems. It's written in an easy to understand conversational style. I've given it to both my sisters and many of my friends.

Not only does Taking Back the Month dispel the mysteries and wives tales surrounding the subject of PMS, but more importantly it delivers the tools to take control, rather than to surrender control, over your body and well being.

I bought this book expecting it would give practical advice about transitioning from breastfeeding at home while on maternity leave, to going back to work and pumping. But that was not the message at all. It turned out to be 200+ pages of "do whatever works for you and don't let anyone else make you feel bad about it." Not the worst advice ever but who needs to buy and read a whole book about that? I also felt patronized by the message that pumping at work would be too hard and I shouldn't bother trying. Helpful advice would have been information about employment laws regarding a woman's right to take breaks to express milk, information about which states ban public breastfeeding, reviews of different models of pumps and their advantages/drawbacks, etc. This sort of information was not in the book.

I read this book, and I didn't get from it the message that others did at all. I think that the book suggests that many women don't nurse at all because they know their employers will be unsupportive of pumping, and Dr. Wilkoff suggests that nursing for 3 months is better than none. I'm personally a round-the-clock sort of breastfeeding mom and nurse my children into toddlerhood, but I was not offended by this book. I think some of the reviewers of this book were choosing to focus only on the parts of it that they disagreed with. There's a lot of good in this book too: he condemns having formula samples in the house for new mothers as he rightly thinks it sabotages breastfeeding, he thinks nursing until babies start solids would be preferable, and he does indeed offer several suggestions for getting employers to be supportive of pumping. But he also acknowledges the sad reality that some employers will not make it feasible enough for women to nurse.

There's a lot of good in this book for women who want to breastfeed but know from the start that they won't do it long-term. I love the Sears and LLL books personally, but I'm also so strongly a believer in breastfeeding that I think 3 months of breastfeeding is better than none. If Dr. Wilkoff's book encourages some women to nurse for 3 months who otherwise wouldn't have nursed their babies at all, then I think it serves a useful function. I rated it only 4 stars though because I think the book makes nursing sound exhausting and in my experience it isn't. New motherhood is inherently exhausting whether you breastfeed or not.

I thought this book was very realistic. I don't feel as though it discouraged me from breastfeeding in the workplace but it did make me feel as though I would not be a failure if I decided not to. Yes, we all know breast is best, and it is best for the first year but it is also our CHOICE! And some breastmilk is better than no breastmilk. If you want to give breastfeeding your best possible shot and you are returning to work, I suggest this book. Don't be swayed by all of the negative reviews here, my guess is that they are mostly from women who feel as though formula is not an option.