The Big Letdown: How Medicine, Big Business, and Feminism Undermine Breastfeeding

As both a mom and an IBCLC, The Big Letdown was an eye-opening and deeply validating read. Kimberly Seals Allers brilliantly exposes the cultural and systemic barriers that make breastfeeding harder than it should be, while reminding readers that the challenges aren’t their fault. Her writing is powerful, honest, and full of insight that every parent—and every health professional should hear. This book challenges the status quo and inspires change, all while lifting up mothers’ voices. It’s not just a book, it’s a movement toward a more supportive world for breastfeeding families.

Mind blowing book! So informative, so well written, so inspiring and enlightening! She exposes the truth about formula and it's danger, pediatricians and their corruption, and how feminism is so detrimental to our lives as mothers and the health of our children. Very eye opening and I recommend this book to all my fellow birth workers. I am a postpartum care provider and doula, @nourishmentformama. And I will lend this to my clients who are interested as well.

This book does a phenomenal job at examining the various ways breastfeeding, mothers, and children are shortchanged and limited. The information and related history highlights the severity of the issue and the need for collective solutions, in a very readable format. It should really be mandatory reading!

This book has a catchy title and when looking for resources for breastfeeding and parenting, I came across this little gem. It has been well researched, discussing the history of formula feeding and where large pharmaceutical companies found a niche that generates billions in revenue at the expense of our future generations. It's a great start in tackling the lack of breastfeeding in the US. It left me wanting more though, the next steps to take as a reader in how to begin to initiate change in my immediate world. Overall, the book was a quick, informative read that opened my eyes towards undermining the breastfeeding mom.

This is one of the most impeccably researched, engagingly narrated, and critically important texts of our time. Why? Because we have been lead, as women, as a society, and even as a people, far off of the path of our humanity and into the dark labyrinth of "better living through chemistry". It's time that we wake up out of our consumerist haze, that we understand the influences at play in shaping our perceptions of "science", and that we reclaim our agency as women for the betterment of all mankind. In order to care about the relevance of breastfeeding to all of us, you must learn about the man behind the curtain, and Kimberly Seals Allers is pulling that curtain back for all to see. "I freed a thousand slaves. I could have freed a thousand more if only they knew they were slaves." - Harriet Tubman

What a great book. I read it so quickly (which is rare for me, a slow reader). Supportive information for you but also really digs deeply into the structural barriers to breastfeeding we face in the USA.

You just don't realize how deep the manipulation goes...This book just made me want to do my job so much harder and help mothers out there realize that they can breastfeed their babies and to not let those doubts (created by predatory formula company marketing) make them question themselves.

This is a marvelously well researched and clear articulation of the challenges faced by women, children and families to be healthy cradle to the grave -- particularly related to breast feeding but beyond that -- it includes how breastfeeding initiatives can change the world.

I learned so much by reading this book. I thought I knew everything about breastfeeding... but I leaned so much it took my breath away. I especially loved her last chapters on social movements and communication messages and ideas for a solution.

I’ve read a few books on this subject and this one so far was the best. A must read to help change the narrative for infant feeding.

Highly recommend for anyone who is helping postpartum families or breastfeeding moms. Would absolutely not reccomend to formula feeding families.

Ms Seals Allers has definitely done a great job. The research detail was phenomenal. I would recommend this book for highlighting the criminal behaviour of baby food formula manufacturers in their war against humanity.

This book reveals how big business can influence a society. Great read.