Synopses & Reviews
The practical, relatable, and humorous guide to surviving the difficult, awkward, and rewarding job of being a breastfeeding, working mom.
Meet the frenemy of every working, breastfeeding mother: the breast pump. Many women are beyond “breast is best” and on to figuring out how to make milk while returning to demanding jobs. Work. Pump. Repeat. is the first book to give women what they need to know beyond the noise of the “Mommy Wars” and judgment on breastfeeding choices. Jessica Shortall shares the nitty-gritty basics of surviving the working world as a breastfeeding mom, offering a road map for negotiating the pumping schedule with colleagues, navigating business travel, and problem-solving when forced to pump in less-than-desirable locales. Drawing on the war stories, hacks, and humor of working moms, and on her own stories from her demanding job and travel in developing countries, she gives women moral support for dealing with the stress and guilt that come with juggling working and breastfeeding. As she tells the reader in her witty, inspiring manifesto, “Your worth as a mother is not measured in ounces.”
2015 Axiom Business Book Award Winner (Silver) in the category of Women/Minorities
Review
“Debut author Shortall strikes the perfect note . . . and takes a casual, keeping-it-real tone toward everything from ‘porn-star boobs’ to pumping during conference calls. . . . It’s the kind of information an intimate, chatty friend who’s done it all could share in a few lunchtimes and a session on the couch—did you know you can sterilize coffee cups in the microwave and pump milk into them?—except that not every mom has those kinds of friends. Having such helpful tips and tricks in print will be a godsend to the back-to-work mom who doesn’t have time for everything to go any less than smoothly.”
Review
“When you read Jessica Shortall’s book, you feel as if your wicked smart and big-hearted friend sat you down to give you the good, the bad and the (often hilarious) reality about pumping at work. Finally a comprehensive book on pumping at work I feel confident about recommending to my clients!”
Review
“Shortall manages to be both hilarious and informative in the non-condescending manner that can only come from someone who has truly been there . . . the result is a holy grail of information. I described the book to a friend as 'postpartum-pee-inducing funny.’ It is a book I not only want to buy for my soon-to-be-working-mom friends, but also for all of my coworkers so that they can just finally understand.”
Review
“I’ve read a sneak preview edition, and it is Very Very Good—the author describes it as a ‘judgment-free zone,’ and she’s not kidding. And it’s absolutely stuffed with practical, detailed advice.”
Review
“As IBCLCs, we understand the theory behind pumping and the production of breast milk. However, no one can understand the practicalities and the emotional cost better than a mom who has done it! Jessica Shortall’s book has hit on an area of need. Based on her own experience, she delivers practical how-tos that other books are missing.”
Review
“I read Work. Pump. Repeat. both as a mother who breastfed and worked, and as an IBCLC. The information in this book is spot-on [regarding] the science behind lactation, written so that stressed working moms will understand it with no jargon to wade through. Ms. Shortall tells it like it is and doesn’t sugarcoat the realities of breastfeeding and working. She reminds us that breastfeeding isn’t all or nothing and some breastmilk is better than none. Bravo!”
Review
“A must-read for any mom who plans to pump at work. Jessica Shortall provides a thorough, practical, and relatable guide to the many challenges and rewards of being a pumping mom. She nimbly avoids controversy and judgment and presents all the things a working mom needs to know, even the things she didn't know she needed to know.”
Review
“A solid advice guide that should be on the shelves of any woman who enjoys a career and who wants to return to it while continuing to nurture her child: a guide very highly recommended for its exceptional focus and well-rounded discussion of the realities of the venture.”
About the Author
"A day late and a night's sleep short" is the motto of writer, columnist, wife and mother (not in that order, of course!),
Vicki Iovine. Vicki began her writing career after the birth of her fourth child (in six years) with the publication of
The Girlfriends' Guide to Pregnancy. This book struck a chord among women who found maternity an altered state, and Vicki soon became a regular contributor on such shows as
Today, Oprah and
The View. She kept in lockstep with the reproductive years of her readers and published The Girlfriends' Guide to Pregnancy Daily Diary; The Girlfriends' Guide to Surviving the First Year of Motherhood; and The Girlfriends' Guide to Toddlers. Vicki is pecking away at her keyboard to finish her fifth book, which deals with parents of school-age kids, for release in fall 2000.
Always armed with an opinion and lots of experience, Vicki is currently the "new mommy" advice columnist for Child magazine in a monthly feature called "Girlfriend to Girlfriend." And with fifteen years of marriage under her belt, she regularly contributes articles to Redbook as the "Marriage Advisor" on the mysteries of the man/woman thing. Most recently, Vicki became the family advice columnist in the Sunday Los Angeles Times.
Far more years ago than she cares to calculate, Vicki graduated summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa in Journalism from the University of California, Berkeley. She went on to earn her J.D. at Hastings College of the Law and is a member of the California Bar Association. Vicki was also a Rotary International Scholar and attended graduate school in England at Cambridge University where she earned an LL.B. in International Law. She took some time off during these legal studies to pose for a Playboy centerfold, when she was selected Miss September 19 -- (you guess).
Any spare moments she can find are devoted to her role as a Director of Special Olympics International, the athletic program founded by Eunice Kennedy Shriver for people with mental retardation. Along with her husband, Jimmy Iovine, and Bobby Shriver, Vicki produced two "Very Special Christmas" records of original and traditional holiday songs performed by the biggest rock, rap and pop acts of the time. Proceeds from those records have exceeded $60 million, every dollar of which has gone into the international program.
Vicki divides her time between her car and her home in Los Angeles. The kids are now ages five, seven, nine and eleven. The husband isn't telling.
Look for her to introduce the Girlfriends' Guide on the internet later this year.
Table of Contents
Contents INTRODUCTION
FOREWORD
WHY I WROTE THIS BOOK
1 So, What Makes You Think You're Pregnant?
2 Sharing the Wonderful News
3 Pregnancy Is a Total Body Experience
4 "I Never Imagined My Body Could Feel Like This!"
5 Pregnancy Insanity
6 You and Your Doctor
7 Prenatal Tests
8 Exercise and Pregnancy
9 Sex and Pregnancy
10 Looking the Best You Can
11 Husbands of Pregnant Women
12 Coming Into the Homestretch
13 What to Take to the Hospital
14 Baby "Stuff"
15 Labor Begins (Finally!)
16 Going to the Hospital
17 Postpartum Dementia
18 "The Old Gray Mare, She Ain't What She Used to Be"
TOP TEN CONCERNS OF PREGNANT WOMEN
TOP TEN REASONS WHY YOU'LL DO THIS ALL OVER AGAIN
POSTSCRIPT
INDEX
ABOUT THE AUTHOR