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I respond here to criticism of my book, Is Breast Best? Taking on the Breastfeeding Experts and the New High Stakes of Motherhood, that has appeared in popular media and academic debate. I argue that the frequently visceral reaction to the book affirms several of its central arguments: that both scientists and the public often misunderstand the limits of observational research; that they fail to appreciate that all choices, including those about risk, involve trade-offs; and that an ethic of total motherhood, which requires mothers to do whatever it takes to eliminate virtually any childhood risk, no matter how small or likely the risk or what the cost is for them in the process, frames public discourse about breastfeeding, families, and care work more broadly defined.