| View Larger Image | The Best Friend's Guide to Maternity Leave: Making the Most of Your Precious Time at Home | Paperbackby Betty Holcomb (Author)
| List Price: | $13.95 | | | Available: | Usually ships in 24 hours |
| | Binding: | Paperback | | Publisher: | Da Capo Press | | Page Count: | 256 Pages | | Publication Date: | October 02, 2002 | | Sales Rank: | 1,121,270st |
|
EDITORIAL REVIEWS |
Product Description
In the tradition of the best-selling Girlfriend's Guide to Pregnancy and Childbirth, the perfect gift for moms-to-be: a smart and friendly guide to enjoying maternity leave. Every working mother knows that time off for a maternity leave will fly by. And just when you get the hang of the dramatically different pace and routine, it's time again to return to work. The refrain is all too common: "I wish someone had told me from the start how to make the most of my leave...I would have enjoyed it more!" The Best Friend's Guide to Maternity Leave is the reassuring book for prospective mothers that provides this much-needed sisterly advice on managing and making the most of this precious and unique time with a new baby. From hard-won advice on getting a paid maternity leave to dealing with the emotional return to work; from tips on bonding with a newborn to unique activities that will memorialize the time together, The Best Friend's Guide is the book every new mother needs and that every wise friend will give her. |
Amazon.com Review
With The Best Friend's Guide to Maternity Leave, author Betty Holcomb tells mothers the wonderful, funny, and sometimes uncomfortable truth about maternity leave. Holcomb, a veteran of two maternity leaves and a contributing editor to Parenting Magazine, takes a practical, non- gimmicky approach to trading career time for precious time with a newborn baby. Reading between the lines of the family medical leave act, she offers sensible strategies for every phase of maternity leave, including how to convince your boss that you really plan on coming back, juggling finances, recovering from childbirth, comparing breast versus bottle feeding, staying in touch with the office, understanding why your husband may disappear, and coping with your first weeks back on the job. Holcomb tackles tough questions, asking for example: When the boss calls and the baby is crying, whoM do you put on hold? One standout chapter offers an insightful view of post-baby marriage and counsels working couples to explore "what it means to 'help' and what it means to 'share'--and how that difference can change your marriage." Other chapters include a fresh view of the mothers' cult of sacrifice. Holcomb suggests that each new mother needs private time to recharge batteries but also to integrate a new view of herself. Yet her wise words must be underscored with the knowledge that for many working mothers maternity leave is not an option. Ultimately, the issues raised here are compelling evidence for making parent leave affordable to all parents. -- Barbara Mackoff |
CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 3.0 based on 4 reviews)
|
Not relevant for many women by Louie2 (New York City)  1 Stars
December 15, 2008
I had several major problems with this book, which I found to be a complete waste of time. First, for those women who have a decent amount of fully paid leave (>8 weeks), this book is not relevant. For those without, or with only very limited paid leave, there is one good chapter on cobbling together a maternity leave period from existing workplace and government benefit programs. However, I found that to be the only useful chapter in this book, and again it really is only useful for those who do not have significant paid leave through work. Given the title, I thought this book would be most useful for those WITH maternity leave benefits (not those without them).
Second, at least a third of the book is dedicated to cheerleading and anecdotes that add up to the conclusion: "The first weeks at home with a new baby are chaotic." I doubt very many moms-to-be needed a hundred pages to help them reach that conclusion. Also, it's not really relevant for "making the most of your time at home", which is what I was hoping to learn about.
Third, this book assumes that husbands are either totally useless or absent altogether. While I acknowledge that very few men have paid "paternity leave," as I understand it most salaried workers have 2-4 weeks vacation time. Since most of the men I know maxed out their vacation time to be at home with the new baby, I thought it strange that the book assumes (with the exception of a single sentence) that new moms' partners will not be a resource worth calling upon. Thus, if you have a partner who's planning to take time off when the baby comes home, this book will not be relevant to your experience, at all, whatsoever. Along the same lines, if you have your childcare lined up already (your partner, for instance, or extended family, or whatever), there's an entire chapter of the book that's not applicable to you. Further still, if you will be bottle-feeding, there's another whole chapter that's just not relevant for you. Despite what a previous reviewer stated, the "breast vs. bottle" question is presented in one paragraph for the reader to answer for herself, and then launches into a lot of discussion of nursing issues that aren't relevant for bottle-feeding families.
In sum, if you are a working woman with paid maternity leave who has a supportive partner, very little of this book will be relevant to your experience. The portions that ARE relevant could be condensed down to a magazine article, so there's no point in buying and reading this book.
| |
Read this book during pregnancy  2 Stars
May 05, 2003
This book is helpful if you read it in the beginning of pregnancy. It does a lot of cheerleading for you to get the most out of your employer for maternity leave but lacks specific instructions or advice. I was looking for ways to get the most out of the maternity leave I was already on and the book did not fit my needs.
| |
Read BEFORE your leave!!! Like in your 2nd trimester!  3 Stars
January 10, 2002
This book is good to read if you have not yet even thought about your maternity leave yet, like in your 2nd trimester of pregnancy. However, if you've already got some idea of what you're doing, or if you're already on leave (like myself), then it really doesn't have a lot of info for you. Really, the parts that I found most helpful in my situation were just emotional anecdotes about how crazy you feel at this time in your life - it's just nice to know someone else feels the way I do. The answer to the question the title seems to ask ("how do I make the most of my maternity leave?") is really given as "Don't expect to get anything accomplished on your leave. Just take care of that baby." Well, I think there are better suggestions out there than that. (If I may be so presumptuous, I'll add my own advice - Get the baby on a tight 3-4 hour feeding schedule. Keep a pen and paper by your chair where you feed the baby. While the baby's feeding, make a list of things you want to get done. That way you at least know when you can do things, and when you have that time, you know what needs to be done. It's working for me!)The book does offer some facts about leaves of absence and ideas about alternative child care and work arrangements, but this was knowledge I already had, at my stage of the game. The title of the book should have been "The Best Friend's Guide to Maternity Leave: PLANNING FOR Your Precious Time at Home."(Another note, and this is a pet peeve: the author takes literary license and writes with sentence fragments, which is fine in small doses. However, there are so many examples of this in the book that it makes it very distracting/awkward to read in some places....)
| |
BabyLounge gives 5 pacifiers to The Best Friend's Guide... by Vicky Collins (Millburn, NJ United States)  5 Stars
August 26, 2001
A cross between the "Girlfriend's Guide to Pregnancy" and "The Rules," this guide is chock full of useful advice on how to handle your maternity leave from work. The author takes you step-by-step on all the essential steps of your maternity leave, from deciding how much time you will need off to making the transition back to work. You will learn a great deal about what steps you'll need to take before, during and after the birth of your child. Some important topics that are covered include how to negotiate time off, deciding between breast and bottle, making the transition to parenthood, how to find time for yourself, and finding quality childcare. Last, but not least, an entire chapter is dedicated to getting back to work. With the humor and wit of this book, you will feel like your best friend is with you during the entire time - giving you real-life wisdom and perspective that only a best friend could give you. A great gift for your pregnant friends that will be returning to work.
| |
SIMILAR PRODUCTS |
| Baby 411, 4th Edition: Clear Answers & Smart Advice For Your Baby's First Year (Baby 411: Clear Answers and Smart Advice for Your Baby's First Year)
by Denise Fields (Author), Ari Brown (Author)
You are having a baby! Congratulations! Now the reality hits you: what the heck am I doing? What if you could bottle the wisdom of all those parents who've come before you and mix it with the solid medical advice from an nationally-renowned pediatrician? Baby 411 is the answer! Think of it as the ultimate FAQ for new parents. Baby 411 hits today's hot-button issues head-on. Inside the revised and updated 3rd edition, you'll find info on: picking a pediatrician, with savvy...
| 
| The Pregnancy Countdown Book: Nine Months of Practical Tips, Useful Advice, and Uncensored Truths
by Susan Magee (Author), Dr. Kara Nakisbendi (Contributor)
The average pregnancy lasts 280 days and the suspense can be excruciating! The Pregnancy Countdown Book starts on Day 280 and counts down the biggest milestones every step of the way with one page of helpful information for each day of your pregnancy. Here are tips from doctors and midwives, amusing anecdotes and quotes, and occasional gory-but-necessary details (if you can define the word 'lochia,' you know what we're talking about). Every page offers an interesting revelation. On Day...
| 
| Baby Bargains, 8th Edition: Secrets to Saving 20% to 50% on Baby Furniture, Gear, Clothes, Toys, Maternity Wear and Much, Much More!
by Denise Fields (Author)
Oh baby! With the average newborn racking up $7,000 in expenses for the first year alone, expectant moms and dads need all the creative cost-cutting ideas they can find. Baby Bargains is the answer. Inside, parents find detailed ratings and reviews of baby gear, plus handy charts that compare brands and models. Since its release in 1994, BABY BARGAINS has sold over 800,000 copies.
| 
| 40 Weeks +: The Essential Pregnancy Organizer (The Essential Organizers)
by Dani Rasmussen (Author), Antoinette Perez (Author)
Finally! A well designed, well researched, easy-to-use organizer for every stage of pregnancy. Forget ducks and bunny rabbits--this clean, sophisticated organizer is designed for modern parents-to-be.
An essential addition to your pregnancy library, this handy tool simplifies the process of preparing for a baby. Tabs provide quick access to checklists, forms, and questionnaires that help manage the details of pregnancy and baby's first weeks at home.
This journal-sized...
| 
| Dunstan Baby Language -- Learn the universal language of newborn babies
Starring: Dunstan Baby Language
Directed By: Dunstan Baby
As announced in an exclusive interview on the Oprah Winfrey Show, Australian mother Priscilla Dunstan has the world talking with the discovery of the secret language of babies. This breakthrough in infant care is the result of one mother's intuition that began nearly a decade of investigation and international research. The Dunstan Baby Language DVD teaches parents the 5 cries all newborns use to communicate their everyday needs from day 1. You will know when your baby is hungry, tired, needs...
|
|
|
