Good Mother, Bad Mother

British baby routine guru Ford (The New Contented Little Baby Book) interweaves what feels like two separate books, even if both point toward the same idea: loving mothering is always good mothering, independent of the details. One section focuses on women’s relationships with their mothers and consists of an emotional, if not especially insightful, tribute to Ford’s own mother. Ford traces their bond from her childhood, when the family struggled financially, through an unconventional adult relationship, to the grief of caring for her mother on her deathbed. The other section is addressed to new mothers and consists of Ford’s insights into the difficulties they face, gleaned from decades of work as a maternity nurse (she has no children herself). Ford places particular emphasis on the pressures exerted by mothers, mothers-in-law, peers, and the culture at large. Setting herself against this mood of “unnerving criticism and competition,” she emphatically affirms that working, bottle-feeding, daycare-using moms are doing perfectly fine. By way of anecdotal demonstration, Ford includes dozens of interviews with mothers of young children, though these tend to be overlong and under-edited. Her established fans may feel comforted by Ford’s reaffirming words, but despite her reputation as an expert, Ford has little new to say about the ravages of the “mommy wars.” (Jan.)