I
first heard Sandra Lang speak some years ago and her words on breastfeeding a
preterm baby were a revelation and a salvation. After an emergency section at 32
weeks for placenta praevia, I struggled against the odds to breastfeed my tiny
daughter. After an extremely
traumatic start, I did go on to feed her for 14 months, but how much easier
would that have been had I been privileged enough to have had access to
Sandra’s knowledge and insight at
that time.
The
new edition of Breastfeeding
Special Care Babies is a welcome update to the original 1997 version, offering
expanded and updated chapters and research updates from a wide range of sources.
The style is informal and although it is primarily aimed at health care
providers, it would equally serve as a rich source of
information for parents with a baby in special baby care, seeking answers
to their questions on breastfeeding.
Sandra
writes in an authoritative manner that is clear and unambiguous. Her opening
chapter on the “Basics of Breastfeeding” stands as a useful introduction to
general anatomy and physiology requirements of breastfeeding and would be a
useful inclusion on any general breastfeeding reading list.
The
drawings, tables and photographs in the book are particularly useful in
adding supportive visual material.
This revised edition includes new material on the instinctive nature of
breastfeeding at birth, skin-to-skin contact and care, new concepts relating to
positioning and attachment, non-nutritive sucking, breast conditions, areolar
massage and breastfeeding and HIV.
I
particularly appreciated the final chapter on “Recommendations for the support
of Breastfeeding” where Sandra advocates a multi-disciplinary approach to
educating and promoting breastfeeding in special circumstances.