Breastfeeding is natural, but it is not entirely instinctive for either mothers or babies. The Nursing Mother's Companion has been among the best-selling books on breastfeeding for more than 30 years, with more than 1 million copies sold. It is respected and recommended by professionals and is well loved by new parents for its encouraging and accessible style.

Kathleen Huggins equips breastfeeding mothers with all the information they need to overcome potential difficulties and nurse their babies successfully from the first week through the toddler years, or somewhere in between. This fully updated and revised edition provides information on topics such as:

Benefits of breastfeeding; How to cope with breastfeeding obstacles and challenges; Incorporating a nursing routine into working life; Treating postpartum headaches and nausea; Nutritional supplements to alleviate postpartum depression; Sharing a bed with baby (co-sleeping) and the risk of SIDS; Introducing solid foods; Expressing, storing, and feeding breast milk.

Readers will also find Huggins's indispensable problem-solving "survival guides" set off by coloured bands on the pages for quick reference, as well as appendices on determining baby's milk needs in the first six weeks and the safety of various drugs during breast-feeding.

Kathleen Huggins is a registered nurse and board-certified lactation consultant who is widely recognized as one of the pioneers in establishing the lactation consultant discipline as a core component of maternal-child health care in US hospitals. She established this reputation by creating and running a model breastfeeding clinic at San Luis Obispo General Hospital in California; by lecturing widely to professional peers and hospital administrators; and through her book The Nursing Mother's Companion. She has also co-authored The Nursing Mother's Guide to Weaning and Nursing Mother, Working Mother. She lives in San Luis Obispo, where she currently runs a new mothers' store, Simply MaMa. She continues to lecture widely in the healthcare and lactation-consultant arenas.