excerpted from Mama Knows Breast: A Beginner’s Guide to Breastfeeding, by Andi Silverman

Breasts are everywhere. You just can’t escape them. They’re all over billboards and magazines, movies and television shows. We worship the cleavage. In fact, it seems like everyone is on “boob watch.” Guys are hard-wired to stare, and even women check each other out to see how they “stack up.”

Click Continue Reading for the Top 10 Best Things and Worst Things about breastfeeding and to read/post comments.

Despite all the attention, it’s easy to forget that breasts serve areal purpose. We’re mammals, and mammals breastfeed to keep their kidsalive. Of course, because of science, formula feeding is an option aswell.

As you’re contemplating all this information, remember thatbreastfeeding is a highly personal experience. Some women love it;others hate it. How will you feel? No way to know until you give it atry and consider the pros and cons.

The 10 Best Things About Breastfeeding

1) Breastfeeding is best for your baby’s health. Breast milkis full of antibodies and nutrients. Research shows that breastfeedingprotects a baby from a range of infectious illnesses and diseases.

2) Breastfeeding is good for your health. It helps you lose weight and can reduce the risk of Type II diabetes, ovarian and breast cancers, and possibly osteoporosis.

3) Breastfeeding gives you time to bond with your baby. Isn’t it pretty cool that you can nourish another human being with your own body?

4) You can feed your baby anywhere, anytime. You can go to a restaurant or on a plane without having to remember to pack bottles and formula.

5) You don’t have to prepare a bottle. When the little guy is hungry, all you have to say is, “One boob, coming right up!” and the crying stops.

6) You don’t have to clean or sterilize bottles. Who wants to add to the mess piling up in the kitchen sink?

7) You might not get your period for a while. But be careful—breastfeeding is not perfect birth control.

8) Breastfeeding costs a lot less than formula. By some rough estimates, formula can cost as much as $3,000 per year.

9) Breastfeeding is good for the environment. If you useformula, you’ll be sending bottles, nipples and empty formula cans to alandfill. Plus, manufacturing and transporting formula require fuel.

10) You’ll still have that big-boobed maternal glow.

The 10 Worst Things About Breastfeeding

1) No one else can do your job. If you are exclusivelybreastfeeding—in other words, if you’re not supplementing with bottlesof formula or pumped breast milk—you’re always on call.

2) Sleep deprivation. Newborns eat around the clock, so there is norest for the weary, especially if your baby doesn’t take a bottle.

3) The breast pump. You’ll have to make time to pump if you plan to be away from the baby for more than a few hours.

4) You’ll have to get used to feeding in public. You’ll invariablyfind yourself in the middle of a department store or the supermarketwhen it’s snack time.

5) Alcohol and caffeine in moderation. The occasional drink is fine, but excessive alcohol is not good for your baby.

6) Leakage. Some women leak breast milk. Not everyone faces thisproblem, of course. But if you do, you’ll need to wear pads inside yourbra.

7) Your husband or partner has to share your boobs with someoneelse. Let’s face it—if the baby is hungry and crying, she comes first.

8) Your husband or partner can feel left out of the baby-bondingprocess. If so, he can still take care of the burping, diapering,bathing, clothing, swaddling, cuddling, reading, strolling, andplaying. Guaranteed, he’ll feel better.

9) Discomfort. If your baby is latched on well, breastfeedingshouldn’t hurt. But for some women, there’s no getting around a bit ofdiscomfort. If so, get help from a lactation consultant as soon aspossible.

10) You will need help! Although your friends and family may havegood tips, it’s often better to get advice from a professional—alactation consultant.

Copyright © 2007 Quirk Productions, Inc., Reprinted with the permission of Andi Silverman and Quirk Books

You can pre-order Mama Knows Breast: A Beginner’s Guide to Breastfeeding  at Amazon.  In the meantime, check out Andi’s blog, MamaKnowsBreast.com.

If you’re a breastfeeding mama, which is your favorite pro and least favorite con?

Little Showoffs wants you to continue the celebration of Wolrld Breastfeeding Week with their own line of simply expressive advocacy tees! Made with 100% super soft cotton, babies and toddlers proudly boast they got the goods with tees that read "breastfeeding" and "still breastfeeding" with sizes ranging from 3/6months up to 6t.  Available in a variety of vibrant colors, the advocacy line is most popular in the natural color made with 100% ORGANIC cotton.  Tia Carrere, a big proponent of breastfeeding, proudly sported her daughter Bianca in her lavender "breastfeeding" tee, her favorite one of the several Little Showoffs tees she owns.

Anya and I are pictured wearing our "breastfeeding" and "still breastfeeding" tees.  I wore it to new Fairway in Red Hook the other day and got some mad props from another new mom.   

Although it’s all about the baby, Little Showoffs offers tees for the supplier of the priceless goods- mom!  Be proud and be bold in your own tee that reads "still breastfeeding" and "got milk!"  Offered in a stylishly hip fitted tee AND maternity tee you should be aware you WILL be grabbing even more attention to your chest but the statment is clear. 

In honor of World Breastfeeding Week, we present to you a photo gallery of our readers breastfeeding their children. 

We hope that if you are a breastfeeding mother, it will empower you, ifyou are someone who has not been exposed to breastfeeding that you willbe inspired, and that if you are someone who doesn’t understandbreastfeeding that you will open your mind.  We have compiled over 330images.

In our society, it is not permissable to stare but please, stare atthese photos and feel honored that these women have invited you towitness a very special and intimate moment in their relationship withtheir children. 

If you feel this photo doesn’t belong on the front page of theCelebrity Baby Blog, ask yourself why it’s considered okay to havewomen exposing nearly every inch of their breast but the areola onmainstream television, magazines, websites, etc. and not to show a babyderiving nutrition and comfort from what breasts are meant to do.  Yes,breasts have become sexual objects but they were meant to feed ourbabies.  You may not choose to feed your baby with them, but that’s why they are on the female body so stop feeling weird about looking at this photo and…

Click here to enter the gallery!

Please spread the word: email your friends, post about it on yourblog, tell others about it on the messageboards you frequent, to spreadthe word about our gallery.

Photo: Heather nursing her daughter Kaila, 12 months old in Hawaii.

Note: All photos are copyright to the owner and subjects andpublished here with their permission.  Please do not reproduce theseimages in any way, shape or form.

If you would like to submit your photos, please email them to BFgalleryATcelebrity-babies.com.Please include your name, your child/ren’s name(s) and age at the timeof the photo.  If you wish to be anonymous, please mention that.  Weare looking for more images of women of color, toddlers, nursing inpublic, and nursing while babywearing.

I have had to close the comments up because way too many people were getting negative.  I’m on vacation and don’t feel like sitting at my computer all day deleting and responding to comments.  I apologize to the many other people who wanted to share their storiesand happiness about this week. You can still email us atBFgalleryATcelebrity-babies.com with your photos or to share yourstories or appreciation.