WHY THIS PROJECT?
There are a couple reasons I originally wanted to do this project. Not only celebrating breast feeding, getting mums in photos, but also to help normalise extended breast feeding/breast feeding older ones -12 months+.
Breast feeding awareness photography projects have been done to death now, I know. But, it’s something I have kept thinking about and coming back to over the years, so I thought , what the hell, I’ll still do it and if nothing else, it’s a good thing to do, to give a little something to other local breastfeeding mums, to give them something I missed out on and regret. And I’ll get to meet some local mums too, which is always super nice :) (Being a newborn photographer is a lot of time sat alone at a computer).
1.NORMALISING EXTENDED BREASTFEEDING.
As we all know, women’s breasts have been so highly sexualised, and, as a result, some people cannot look past this to see them for what they are supposed to be: the means of feeding a child. Luckily now, breast feeding in public seems to be more accepted, but there still seems to be a little bit of a stigma surrounding breast feeding children over a certain age.
I hate to admit this, but I am guilty of once thinking many years ago, as my younger self, that breast feeding was lovely, but once the child can run around it’s a little bit weird. How wrong I was, and I feel awful for ever thinking this way. Fast forward many years and there I was still nursing my almost 3 year old.
I never had planned to nurse her for that long. My other daughters had sort of weaned themselves off at around 12 months so I naturally thought, this is what babies do. However, my last daughter showed absolutely no signs of stopping, she wasn’t anywhere near ready at 12 months and to be quite honest, neither was I. I knew she was my last baby and I adored the special closeness and bond that breastfeeding gave us.
I’d still feel a little embarrassed when I’d say I was still breastfeeding my 2.5 year old though. I’d often see the raised eyebrows of surprise and it made me feel a little bit shitty.
I now feel proud of how long I managed to nurse my little girl ❤️
2. CELEBRATING BREASTFEEDING & GETTING MUM’S IN PHOTOS!
My other reason for wanting to do this project is I am sad that I have no photos of myself breastfeeding my babies.
I personally feel for me, it was a huge accomplishment, especially considering the pain and continuous mastitis I suffered with breastfeeding my daughters. Unfortunately, I didn’t breast feed my first daughter, I was young and felt embarrassed by the whole thing. With my second daughter, I was determined to breastfeed. In the first few weeks, I’ll be honest, it was hell. It felt like my nipples were being ripped off, some days, like I was being stabbed in my nipples by a million tiny daggers. Cracked and bleeding, I had to sit with a tea towel in my mouth to bite down on, whilst the tears rolled down my face. Yes, it was really that painful for me. And this is on top of the sleep deprivation, toilet problems, the after pains that feel like contractions all over again and the soreness down below having just pushed your baby into the world. And then, don’t get me started on how ill I got with the dreaded mastitis. I was particularly prone to this and it’s like the worst flu ever. But despite the difficulties, I do also believe it’s one of the most amazingly beautiful natural things in the world (after everything settles down). I would have loved a beautiful photo of myself feeding my baby daughters.
I imagine many mums would be in the same boat as me and have no photos of themselves breastfeeding. Many partners don’t think to pick up the camera when you’re nursing. Or perhaps your husbands/partners have gone to take a photo but you’re feeling crap. You’ve had a rubbish night’s sleep, certainly haven’t done your hair or make-up in days and generally feeling like absolute shite, so you say to put the phone away.
Birth and the postpartum period is such an emotional and raw time for us women and there are so many expectations piled upon us of what we ‘should’ be doing to be a ‘good’ mum. Sometimes we’re lost in the whirlwind of new motherhood, that the last thing we’re thinking about is getting some photos of us breastfeeding to look back on in the future of our amazing accomplishment. It’s often something that you really don’t think of until later when you’re no longer breastfeeding and then it’s too late.
