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Baby Wisdom: The World's Best-kept Secrets for the First Year of Parenting
 
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Baby Wisdom: The World's Best-kept Secrets for the First Year of Parenting (Paperback)

by Deborah Jackson (Author)
5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)

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Product details

  • Paperback: 544 pages
  • Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton Ltd (7 Feb 2002)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0340793503
  • ISBN-13: 978-0340793503
  • Product Dimensions: 23.3 x 15.6 x 3.8 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 67,871 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Product Description

Daily Mail, February 22, 2002

This is the best book on bringing up babies I've ever read, and that's saying something. by Georgina Metcalfe


Product Description

In every culture baby care issues are the same - from crying babies to sleepless nights, breastfeeding problems to weaning worries. But when it comes to solutions, there is much that we can learn from other country's traditions. There are cultures, for example, where babies rarely cry, where breastfeeding is routine for grandmothers as well as mothers, and where babies always sleep with older family members. Looking beyond our own narrow approach is not only fascinating but hugely enlightening too. Tackling all the topics of modern baby care, theme by theme, this is a treasure trove of positive ideas, combining the unusual and the universal, the unexpected and the commonplace. Reassuring for parents everywhere, it shows there is no one way of bringing up baby.
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Customer Reviews

6 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
5.0 out of 5 stars (6 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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26 of 26 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars An overview of world babies, 3 Mar 2002
By Mary (Nottingham) - See all my reviews
I ordered this book after hearing the author interviewed about it on 'Woman's Hour'. I had visions of her having travelled to all these far flung places to do her research. However instead 'Baby Wisdom' trawels through all the literature on baby care, both historical and anthropological. A disappointment? No, for this is no mean feat, and it certainly does a thorough job of it. Infact Deborah Jackson's book must be one of the most comprehensive overviews of its kind.

If you liked the Body Shop's "Mamatoto", you will love this. It's a similar idea, but gives us much, much more. I particularly valued the quotes which gave names and voices to women from around the world, rather than just relying on the anthropologists' reports.

The book sets out to describe the 'difference and sameness' between babycare practices around the world. It does this without giving way to the temptation to take the moral high ground over issues which we know are close to the author's heart. There is no preachy tone, just some witty, some humourous, and some thought provoking remarks. (Not least the revelation that in a Somerset hospital there was a correlation between birth weight and net chocolate weight of y=3349+0.52058x, where the chocolates were the thank you present.)

One regret is that Baby Wisdom is not illustrated. I have some of the books sourced, and find the old black and white photos the anthropologists took as fascinating as the texts. However, any interested reader could follow up the references if they wanted to find out more about the cultures featured.

One thing is for sure: however quirky your baby is, however far you stray from the health visitor's advice, you need not feel alone in the world. You can take comfort from the wisdom that somewhere in human evolution there's a reason for every baby's babyness.

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18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Baby Wisdom, 6 Jul 2002
By Angela Large (Hoxton, London United Kingdom) - See all my reviews
Deborah Jackson has been the most influential author for me as a mother since having my son four years ago, when I saw this book in the bookshop I automatically bought and it does not disappoint. As usual, Jackson has produced a book which encourages and celebrates a mother's instinct when caring for her baby and small child. The amazing variety of baby care practices from around the world are presented clearly and serve to encourage western mothers and fathers to examine the "wisdom" of some current baby care advice. I was struck by the way in which babies are viewed by the different cultures around the world, most seeing babies as normal, necessary participants in a family's/society's life, mothers and babies are generally not separated either from each other or from the society within which they live. I think we have a lot to learn in the west, where separation from all that is familiar and reassuring is the experience of many new mothers, it is no wonder that "routine, parent-directed baby care advice" has found such a ready market here.
If you want to re-examine western attitudes to babies, mothers and their care, read this book, it will help to set you free to be the mother/father that you instinctively want to be.
I am expecting our second child in October and this book has strengthened my resolve to do it "my way". With a back up of millions of other mothers around the world!
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28 of 31 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Browse through 'Baby wisdom', 3 Sep 2002
By Liliana Lammers (London, UK) - See all my reviews
I did not read "Baby Wisdom". You cannot peruse such a rich non-fiction book from page one to page 500. I put it somewhere on my desk and, now and then, I open it at random. Each time I start reading I need a pen to take notes. The more I explore this inimitable source of information, the more I am amazed by the art Deborah Jackson has developed to widen our horizons. On the first page that caught my attention, I came across the story of a mother gorilla in a zoo who had been unable to give the breast to her baby until the day when she saw a group of breastfeeding human mothers. Via such a story you are immediately conditioned to interpret many current breastfeeding difficulties and to accept the key sentence in that page: "Western humans are born and raised in an environment as artificial as any zoo". You unreservedly agree that we cannot make assumptions about human infant feeding in general by looking at our very special cultural milieu.
'Baby wisdom' cannot be compared with any other book or manual about babies and child rearing. Let us take as an example the chapter about crying babies. Most baby books focus on recipes in order to calm a colicky baby. Deborah Jackson first helps us to realize that crying is the universal language of infancy. Thanks to her highly concise style she just needs one line: "Rhesus monkeys coo. Ape babies scream. And human infants cry". After that we are curious to know about the interpretation of infant crying in different cultural milieus. When our curiosity has been amply fulfilled, we are ready to accept that our western interpretations set us apart from most of the world.
Browse through 'Baby wisdom' and you'll learn about human nature from an authentic expert...the mother of three children.
Liliana Lammers
Doula and grandmother
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Mind Opening!
I borrowed Baby Wisdom from our library when I was 6 months pregnant with my first baby. I must say I was lucky to read it during pregnancy because it simply opened up my mind to... Read more
Published on 29 Aug 2007 by S. Exner

5.0 out of 5 stars The best baby book for new mums
Forget about the contended baby books. Read this book instead.
It made me realise that I was normal after all, and just going through what every new mum experiences... Read more
Published on 19 Jan 2007 by mim ward

5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating
I borrowed this book from the library a few days ago and I have probably read most of it already, though not cover-to-cover: I have been opening it at random every time I pick it... Read more
Published on 19 Aug 2004 by Alianor

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