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Cate Colburn-Smith
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The Milk Memos: How Real Moms Learned to Mix Business with Babies-and How You Can, Too Paperback – March 15, 2007

by Cate Colburn-Smith (Author), Andrea Serrette (Author)
4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 174 ratings
See all formats and editions
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This one-of-a-kind guide to balancing motherhood and work is based on actual journals kept by a group of IBM women during their visits to the company's employee lactation room.

It all began when IBM manager Cate Colburn-Smith sat down in the company's employee lactation room, shed a few silent tears, and wrote the following on a paper towel: I'm a new mom and today is my first day back at work. Is anyone else using this room?

Right away women responded, and the paper towel was eventually replaced by a series of notebooks, in which women offered one another advice and support on juggling work and a newborn. Based on the original notebooks, The Milk Memos is a heartwarming, encouraging (and often hilarious!) guide to working motherhood.

It's one of the most existential moments any woman will face: sitting in a small room tucked away in the bowels of your company, pumping breast milk for a child so close to your heart-yet, at that moment, so far away. The Milk Memos records the voices of mothers who, while struggling with the difficulties of blending their two lives, prove that women don't have to choose between work and family. Their thoughts on how it can be done will inspire women everywhere. This invaluable book weaves the actual Milk Memos journal entries with information-packed sections on such topics of great concern to working moms as:

- finding a private place to pump breast milk at work and establishing a routine that you can maintain despite your busy workday;
- establishing the right daycare solution;
- getting a decent night's sleep with a new baby so that you can shine (or at least glimmer!) during business hours; and
- negotiating flextime, part-time, or a job share with an employer.

The ultimate gift for any new mom who will soon return to work, The Milk Memos is destined to become a classic on the parenting shelf.
Previous page
  1. Print length
    370 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    TarcherPerigee
  4. Publication date
    March 15, 2007
  5. Dimensions
    5 x 0.96 x 7.13 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    1585425443
  7. ISBN-13
    978-1585425440
  8. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Colburn-Smith and Serrette aim to make the impossible a little less so with their guide for working nursing moms. "We are thoroughly convinced," they write, "that you don't have to choose between having a career and being a great mom." The genesis of the book was in a tiny lactation room at IBM, where an impromptu mothers' group formed. Pumping away in the former janitor's closet, the IBM moms communicated with each other through notebooks about their struggles, woes and joys. Sections of the notebooks are reproduced, interwoven with practical advice. While at times the book reads like an ad for Medela breast pumps, the guidance is sound. Choosing child care, spilled breast milk, picking the right pump, evil bosses, plugged ducts, low milk production (breasts that turn out to be "Milk Duds") and the like are written about both informatively and humorously. In this solid resource, Colburn-Smith and Serrette do their best to be all-inclusive, careful not to judge those who supplement with formula or decide to wean before the baby's first birthday. (Mar.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

About the Author

Cate Colburn-Smith is the co-author of The Milk Memos: How Real Moms Learned to Mix Business With Babies—and How You Can, Too. She graduated from the University of Colorado with a degree in business, and works as a marketing executive at IBM. Colburn-Smith lives in Colorado with her husband and two daughters.

Andrea Serrette is the co-author of The Milk Memos: How Real Moms Learned to Mix Business With Babies—and How You Can, Too. She graduated from the University of Colorado at Boulder and has more than 17 years of experience in marketing, branding, and content. She currently works as a senior manager at Ricoh USA and lives in Colorado with her husband and children.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ TarcherPerigee; 3.2.2007 edition (March 15, 2007)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 370 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1585425443
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1585425440
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 9.8 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5 x 0.96 x 7.13 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 174 ratings

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Cate Colburn-Smith

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Customer reviews

4.5 out of 5 stars
4.5 out of 5
174 global ratings
Very helpful and enjoyable read
5 Stars
Very helpful and enjoyable read
This book helped me feel more confident in the weeks leading up to my return to work. It's a must read. I thoroughly enjoyed reading it with my little guy nestled on my chest after a nursing session.
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Top reviews from the United States

Mamma Ro
5.0 out of 5 stars Fabulously helpful
Reviewed in the United States on September 16, 2008
Verified Purchase
This book is a "must have" for any nursing mommas going back to work and hoping to continue the breastfeeding relationship. I wish I had had this book when my first daughter was born and I went back to work. I felt so alone in my extremely challenging endeavor of pumping and working. If I had had this book, I would have felt supported, vindicated, inspired, and most of all, would have had the collective wisdom of other women who've learned how to make it work.

I now plan to buy this book for all my friends who are having babies and planning to continue their careers out of the home. I would also recommend Working Without Weaning but if you're only going to buy one book, this one will tell you most everything you need and it's so darn affordable! It's also well written and backed up by research.

Hurray for a couple of super-moms who managed to pump AND work AND somehow find time to write a book! Most books are written by stay-at-home moms who could never understand the pump/work dynamic. (No offense to them but even my local LLL leader couldn't help me because she has never experienced working out of the home 40 hrs/wk, away from her baby, dealing with pumping and storing milk and all the rest.

This book covers everything from starting the breastfeeding relationship on the right foot, introducing bottles, buying the right pump, negotiating time/space with your employer, sleep-deprivation, anxiety about being separated from your baby, the challenge of juggling career and family priorities, the challenge of being perceived as "less productive" at work now that you're juggling everything else. It has a nice balance of informative narrative from the authors, interspersed between the journal entries of the "Milk Mamas" group sharing the lactation room at IBM. I wish I had colleagues in my workplace to share this kind of journal with but reading their comments made me feel like I was not alone in my struggles.

Unlike other books I encountered, this book does not start from the premise that new moms should consider quitting their job or giving up their careers. It starts with the understanding that you are going back to work, either by choice or necessity, and aims to give you all the tools you need to successfully continue providing your baby with breastmilk for as long as you want to. Towards the end, it addresses the potential alternatives such as flex schedules, part time work, or putting your career on hold. But it doesn't start off making you feel like you're a bad mother if you go back to work.

Now that I've read this book (and a couple others), I just know I'm going to be more successful with pumping and working this time around with my second baby. In retrospect, it helped me see that I actually did a pretty good job the first time around (100% breastmilk until 6 months; daughter weened herself at 9 months when my milk supply dried up). I just felt like such a failure and like I lacked the kind of support I needed.

Definitely buy this book NOW and read it cover to cover if you are going to be a working mom! You'll enjoy and appreciate it.
29 people found this helpful
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Kelli Liszka
5.0 out of 5 stars Must read before maternity leave ends
Reviewed in the United States on May 4, 2015
Verified Purchase
I'm typing this review during a middle of the night nursing session with my four-month-old, who just started daycare last week when I returned to work from maternity leave. Throughout leave, I had anxiety (and guilt) about returning to work. Luckily, I stumbled on a recommendation for this book in the comments section of one of the many "pumping and going back to work" articles that I read just in the nick of time.

While it is certainly spot-on for nursing moms, I think ANY mom returning to work can find comfort, humor and practical advice in its pages. I've already decided decided to include a copy of this book in any shower gift and will recommend that the new mommy reads it about a month before going back.

I'm happy to report that I survived my first week back (which, pro-tip, was only 3 days thanks to starting midweek), complete with three daily pumping sessions, and it went better than I could have ever expected. You can do it! I could almost feel the Milk Mamas from the book cheering me on, and have already bonded with a couple of the Milk Mamas with whom I share our very own Pumping Palace. :)
One person found this helpful
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MurielTx
4.0 out of 5 stars Nice book about working and pumping, good info, a lot of repeat if you own any other book
Reviewed in the United States on January 30, 2012
Verified Purchase
This book was a good read and was certainly written in a way that is not too scientific and allows any mother to recognize herself in it. If this is the only book you read, it will give you information decent enough to take out on your pumping trip. However, if you have read any other book, you will find this one redundant and some of the topics plain... certainly not topics that a pumping mom would address in a post-it note.

The book gets a 4 star because I have found comfort in knowing that other moms went through this, reading about it, and I did like the humor in the book. I have also appreciated the sneak-peak preview of the pumping reality at work. I liked the factual info about how much was needed in the fridge before going back to work, and some ideas (that I used while travelling) as to how to pump when you do not have a place to do so.

However, I think this books lacked important information. In the fiction-style of the book : how come for instance no woman in this book use a hands-free bra for pumping ? This is must-have if you're going to use your pump 2 to 4 times a day. Why would no woman rent or own a hospital grade pump and talk about it ? Why don't they talk about the resources you can use (books, internet, or hints) to deal with over/under supply ? Why don't they talk about days with (big supply) and days without (low supply) and that's it's normal and how to handle it ?

while I did like the read and did find some info I found in no other place, I feel this book is still incomplete as a pumping resource. Don't hesitate to check kellymom.com and askdrsears.com for more pumping resources !!
11 people found this helpful
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E
5.0 out of 5 stars Really hit home!!
Reviewed in the United States on September 28, 2007
Verified Purchase
I really can't say enough good things about this book. As a breastfeeding mom who just returned to work a few days ago, this book was a godsend. I've never read a book that was so informative, touching, and hilarious rolled all into one. It helped me to be prepared for the difficulties of working and pumping that I would face, and helped me to get organized enough to make sure I had everything I needed to make working and breastfeeding a success. It EVEN gave me the courage and information needed to request (and receive!) a place to pump privately at my workplace when I had previously thought that I was going to be resigned to pumping in the women's bathroom. I also appreciated the book's non-judgemental tone: it presented breastfeeding as the best-possible solution for feeding our babies but it did not scoff at those women who find themselves struggling with it (as many of us have) or not interested in doing it long-term.
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A L Britton
1.0 out of 5 stars Bulked out advice you may as well google.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 2, 2021
Verified Purchase
I got this because I wanted something which would give me several viewpoints on expressing at work, and perhaps feel some solidarity with people who had done so, as I know nobody who has in "real life". It turns out that although the words of the authors might be true, the other "characters" are composites, invented by the authors to create a structure on which they could hang the advice. It's a nice way of delivering the information, sure, but I felt a little cheated that I had gone to the effort of sourcing a "true" book which wasn't, and the information content of which I could have read on a website in ten minutes.
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Bieke
4.0 out of 5 stars Funny and useful
Reviewed in the Netherlands on April 16, 2016
Verified Purchase
Helpful and with a lot of humor ! A very good prepareren for mothers who Will go soon back to work.
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Agnes Ritter
5.0 out of 5 stars really helpful
Reviewed in Germany on October 2, 2014
Verified Purchase
Read the book when returning to work. It felt like talking to my girl friends and helping each other. Helped me through the tough first month back in business. Thank you so much for publishing it!
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Client d'Amazon
4.0 out of 5 stars Super
Reviewed in France on March 3, 2017
Verified Purchase
Même si les références sont américaines, ce livre est vraiment intéressant sur la continuité de l'allaitement après le retour au travail
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