Gill Rapley PhD - Baby-Led Breastfeeding: Follow Your Babys Instincts for Relaxed and Easy Nursing

Gill Rapley has worked as a midwife and a public health nurse. She has also been a voluntary breastfeeding counselor and lactation consultant. More recently, she spent fourteen years working for the UNICEF UK Baby Friendly Initiative, helping maternity and community health workers to implement good standards of care for mothers and babies. She and her husband have three grown-up children and live in Kent, England.

Tracey Murkett is a writer and journalist, and she is also a voluntary mother-to-mother breastfeeding helper. She lives in London, England, with her partner and their daughter, now age seven.

Gill and Tracey are the authors of Baby-Led Weaning: The Essential Guide to Introducing Solid Foods and Helping Your Baby to Grow Up a Happy and Confident Eater and The Baby-Led Weaning Cookbook: 130 Recipes That Will Help Your Baby Learn to Eat Solid Foodsand That the Whole Family Will Enjoy.

Gill Rapley and Tracey Murkett have done it again. They have produced another excellent book that puts babies in charge of how much they eat. Babies are competent! Mothers dont have to be totally in charge of feeding. What an empowering message for new moms! Rapley and Murkett provide a great overview of breastfeeding, incorporating the latest research. This organized, easy-to-use guide will get you started. And if you encounter problems, the book offers many possible solutions. But Rapley and Murketts most important message is that babies know how to do this.

Kathleen Kendall-Tackett, PhD, IBCLC, FAPA, Editor-in-Chief of Clinical Lactation and coauthor of Breastfeeding Made Simple, 2nd Edition

Baby-Led Breastfeeding is the much-needed, thorough precursor to Baby-Led Weaning. Baby-Led Breastfeeding is a complete, stand-alone resource, offering mothers research-based, accessible information on a wide range of breastfeeding-related topics. Rapley and Murkett respectfully educate, affirm, and encourage mothers to trust their own instincts, and their babys instincts as well. This is truly the only breastfeeding book you need!

Megan Massaro, co-author of The Other Baby Book: A Natural Approach to Babys First Year

This engaging resource features lots of recipes to encourage baby independence during weaning and should match the popularity of the previous guide.

Library Journal, on The Baby-Led Weaning Cookbook

[Rapley and Murkett] encourage parents to forgo the usual baby puree and move straight to whole foods while continuing to breastfeed primarily after a baby is six months old. Their arguments are scientifically sound, especially when it comes to muscle development in the mouth, and they address the anticipated counterarguments.... If mine were little again, I would definitely try this. As long as mom is nursing, who says baby cant eat lamb chops?

Library Journal, starred review on Baby-Led Weaning

Ive been telling mothers for years that when babies start grabbing food from the table, they are ready for solids.... What I love about this book is the joy and zest the authors put into parenting, their commonsense approach, and their faith that babies will do the right things for themselves when the time is right.

Nikki Lee, RN, MS, IBCLC, on Baby-Led Weaning

BECAUSE EVERY BOOK IS A TEST OF NEW IDEAS

Baby-Led Weaning: The Essential Guide to Introducing Solid Foods and Helping Your Baby to Grow Up a Happy and Confident Eater

The Baby-Led Weaning Cookbook: 130 Recipes That Will Help Your Baby Learn to Eat Solid Foodsand That the Whole Family Will Enjoy

New York

Baby-Led Breastfeeding: Follow Your Babys Instincts for Relaxed and Easy Nursing
Copyright Gill Rapley and Tracey Murkett, 2012
The are a continuation of this copyright page.

All rights reserved. Except for brief passages quoted in newspaper, magazine, radio, television, or online reviews, no portion of this book may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or information storage or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

The Experiment, LLC
260 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 100016408
www.theexperimentpublishing.com

Originally published in the United Kingdom in 2012 by Vermilion, an imprint of Ebury Publishing/Random House Group. This edition, which has been adapted and revised for North America, is published by arrangement with Vermilion.

Many of the designations used by manufacturers and sellers to distinguish their products are claimed as trademarks. Where those designations appear in this book and The Experiment was aware of a trademark claim, the designations have been capitalized.

The Experiments books are available at special discounts when purchased in bulk for premiums and sales promotions as well as for fundraising or educational use. For details, contact us at .

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:

Rapley, Gill.
Baby-led breastfeeding : follow your babys instincts for relaxed and easy nursing / Gill Rapley and Tracey Murkett.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-61519-066-9 (pbk.) -- ISBN 978-1-61519-164-2 (ebook)
1. Breastfeeding. I. Murkett, Tracey. II. Title.
RJ216.R334 2012
649.33--dc23
2012024388

ISBN 978-1-61519-066-9
Ebook ISBN 978-1-61519-164-2

Cover design by Alison Forner
Cover photograph Marieke Kern

Neither the authors nor the publisher are engaged in rendering professional advice or services to individual readers and their children or relatives. The ideas, procedures, and suggestions in this book are not intended as a substitute for consulting a physician. All matters regarding health require medical supervision. Neither the authors nor the publisher shall be liable or responsible for any loss, injury, or damage allegedly arising from any information or suggestion in this book. The opinions expressed in this book represent the personal views of the authors and not of the publisher.

Manufactured in the United States of America
Distributed by Workman Publishing Company, Inc.
Distributed simultaneously in Canada by Thomas Allen & Son Ltd.

First published September 2012
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Dedicated to the memory of Traceys mother, Ivy, and her sister, Sally, who both championed breastfeeding long before Tracey had the chance to discover why.

Breastfeeding is important. It protects against illness, promotes optimal development, and helps build a strong and lasting bond between mother and babylaying the foundation for a lifetimes good health and emotional well-being. As evidence grows about how much breastfeeding matters, and research reveals more about the potential health risks of