Abstract: This reference handbook for health care providers and lay counselors focuses on helping mothers breastfeed successfully. Breastfeeding counselors need to be proficient at being a nurse, teacher, and counselor. For the individuals who have a background in one of these areas, this manual will help improve skills in the other areas. Individual guidance is the basis for helping breastfeeding mothers, and involves listening, empathizing, pointing out options, educating, advising, encouraging individual decisions, and referral to appropriate resources. The emphasis of the handbook is on proper management of breastfeeding and prevention of problems, and is intended as a complement to medical care. Several sections are guides to the art of counseling in general, and counseling mothers and couples through various processes- are decisions concerning pregnancy, changes in family relationships after childbirth, and special breastfeeding situations. Other sections deal with subject matter: breast structure and function, nutrition, properties and advantages of breast milk, feeding baby, and the use of special aids and techniques for breastfeeding. A study guide is included for each chapter. The appendices contain much practical help: a glossary, information on drugs excreted in breast milk, a recommended reading list for counselors and mothers, a resource list, a human milk bank directory, a bibliography, an index, and client profile forms. (as).