Why this book?

Why this book?
When I had my first baby, I thought breastfeeding made sense; for me it was the logical next step after the pregnancy. I expected it to be easy enough, after all it was natural and humankind survived on it for many ten-thousands of years. However it turned out to be harder than I thought and when I tried to get help from the public health nurse for instance, she gave me well-meant but incorrect advice. After slow weight gain she told me to supplement and I did. As a result my supply diminished, my baby got confused between the different techniques of sucking on breast and bottle and before long she was fully on bottles.
When my second baby was born, I was determined to succeed this time. I still wasn't sure how, but at least I knew what not to do. Sadly the public health nurse I had this time also gave the same incorrect advice when this baby too had slow weight gain. But I chose to ignore her and instead of supplementing I just fed her around the clock. Soon she gained really well and as she became stronger the feeds got a bit shorter and less frequent. We went down from 18 feeds a day to 'only' 12. In spite of the lack of support I managed to continue breastfeeding this time around and even fed through a pregnancy. After my third baby was born, I tandem nursed for a few months. My second child weaned herself.
By this time I had found some fabulous breastfeeding websites containing accurate information and I had learned that the WHO recommended breastfeeding up to 2 years and beyond. Something I had never read in the breastfeeding leaflets in the hospital and had never been told by the health professionals I had met. Everywhere around me I heard breastfeeding myths being told as truths, I heard many stories like my own when I had my first baby and I decided to help make a change. I wrote a book about my three very different experiences with breastfeeding. I wrote in a novel style, to make it more entertaining and easier to read. In April 2009 the book was published in my homecountry the Netherlands. My family and some other people I have met in Ireland have encouraged me to translate my book into English and get it published. This happened in September 2010.
A fourth baby and 5 years later, I wrote a significant new part for the book, updated a few things of the old parts and republished it both in Dutch and English. The book is no longer just about breastfeeding anymore, but also about the challenges of motherhood. I hope it encourages other women on their journey into motherhood, or for older mothers I hope it will bring cherished memories flooding back.