Breastfeeding is widely recognized as being the best option for your baby. It is known that breast milk is packed with nutrients your baby needs specially during the first six months of life. Any amount of breast milk is highly beneficial, but the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends exclusively nursing for a minimum of 6 months.
With all the benefits that come with breastmilk, why is that Breastfeeding is so frowned upon by many?
“My opinion is that anybody offended by breastfeeding is staring too hard.” – David Allen
In society where women have been highly sexualized, it frustrating that breastfeeding is considered a controversial topic. Women are often harassed for nursing in public, they have the rights to breastfeed anywhere. Why is it that mothers face discrimination, embarrassment and insults for nurturing their babies in the most natural and humane way?
“There is one thing the photograph must contain, the humanity of the moment.”
— Robert Frank
Our Breastfeeding World team believes that one picture is more powerful than a thousand words. Our movement began with our photography project in New York City and has changed the lives of many in the past 4 years through our photographers’ breathtaking images.
This year we are so happy to see our amazing photography community grow and to get to know women around the world who like us believe in the importance of normalizing breastfeeding one picture at a time.
We have the pleasure to have worked with the talented Raelyn Ramey who hosted a Breastfeeding World Photo Session in Des Moines, Iowa sponsored by Kindred Bravely.
Meet our Breastfeeding World photographer
Raelyn is an art photographer, who specializes in weddings. Her journey toward breastfeeding began when she had her own little girl, Eliisa. Not expecting the hiccups that would come in that journey, she soon found herself surrounded by love and support during a very emotional time. With the encouragement from her husband and the strangers that came forward to help feed her child so she could ultimately meet her goal of one year, is a gift she will forever be thankful for.
Raelyn soon decided that she wanted to find a way to give back to her community by providing small breastfeeding sessions to mama’s that wanted to document such an intimate moment in both of their lives. No matter the type of photo sessions, Raelyn strives to capture authentic, raw emotions through her art work. Find Raelyn’s work here and on Instagram.
An empowering day to remember
Nineteen strong, powerful, beautiful women came together to be part of our session: Mother Nurture -Awaken which took place this past May 20th. Special thanks to Trixie’s Salon and their team of professional makeup artists who gave these moms a gift of makeup and hair for the session.
Des Moines, Iowa’s first Breastfeeding World Photo Session
“Nursing started off really easy for us. My 10mo old does have a small tongue tie but we opt out of getting it cut because it wasn’t affecting his weight gain and it wasn’t painful for me. Adrian is my first baby so everything was new to me. I do wish I had more knowledge on breastfeeding before I started because no one tells you how time consuming it can be, how dry and itchy your boobs can get or how engorgement hurts so bad. I will never forget the morning my milk came in and I woke up in so much pain. I didn’t know if I should pump, or if I should wake him up to nurse, I had no idea what was going on. I soon found out pumping helps with engorgement. I was cursed/blessed with over supply, It is a love hate thing. I love that I produce enough milk for not only my baby but for babies I donate to, but I hate pumping because It is so time consuming. I do love the bond breastfeeding gives you, the relaxing feeling, and the high you feel when the oxytocin is released. I love that I get tons of snuggles in with my boy each day. And as much as pumping sucks I am so glad I have been able to donated 2500oz so far!” – Ashlee Bliss, 2018 Breastfeeding World Photo Session Participant
“Our breastfeeding journey started out very rough because of a severe tongue tie. After a revision surgery and lots of work, he was able to nurse successfully. It has been a tremendous amount of work, and we fought hard to get to where we are now.” – Aerica Baker, 2018 Breastfeeding World Photo Session
“Breastfeeding has been such an amazing journey! Emma is my 3rd baby, so I feel confident in all aspects of breastfeeding. I love the special bond I have with her! Before I had kids, I never knew I would become so passionate about breastfeeding.” – Ashley Osborn, 2018 Breastfeeding World Photo Session Participant
“I always knew I wanted to nurse my child. I remember vivid dreams before I was ever even pregnant of a beautiful baby with thick, dark, curly hair lovingly nestled on my breast.” – Samantha Damman, 2018 Breastfeeding World Photo Session Participant
“My breastfeeding journey hasn’t been the easiest. I always imagined it to be easy and natural because honestly that’s how people and society portrayed it. However it was anything but easy and it didn’t come naturally.” – Nicole Huber, 2018 Breastfeeding World Photo Session Participant
“Started feeding my baby when she was born & was not familiar with breastfeeding at all. I was the first in my family to have a baby and therefore it was all completely foreign to me.” – Stephanie Finnegan, 2018 Breastfeeding World Photo Session Participant
“I was blessed to breastfeed my son until he was 2.5 years old. Now I’m working through the challenge of nursing my twin rainbow girls. Tandem nursing is an interesting journey.” – Katie Johnson, 2018 Breastfeeding World Photo Session Participant
“I exclusively pumped for over 2 mo this after my daughter had heart surgery. She is finally able to nurse again, and I couldn’t be happier! The bond we share is so strong, and I am so thankful for it!” – Wendy Alexander, 2018 Breastfeeding World Photo Session Participant
“I’ve been breastfeeding for almost two years, starting with the birth of my daughter Carmen and continuing with my 2-month-old Jonah. I’ve had moments that were challenging, funny, and beautiful.” – Jenny Comstock, 2018 Breastfeeding World Photo Session Participant
“I wasn’t sure what to expect with breastfeeding my daughter. I’m a first time mom and the experiences of the women I know who have breastfed were pretty varied.” – Rachel Vaughn, 2018 Breastfeeding World Photo Session Participant
“This is my second baby and breastfeeding, thankfully, had been fairly easy for us this time around. We had the normal kinks to work out in the beginning, but I’m so thankful we have made it this long!” – Katy Sowden, 2018 Breastfeeding World Photo Session Participant
“I started breastfeeding with my first born two and a half years ago. My only set goal was to nurse as long as she needed. One year breastfeeding quickly passed, and soon I was pregnant and nursing a toddler. Now, most nursing sessions include both of my babies.” – Marlise Boedeker, 2018 Breastfeeding World Photo Session Participant
“I have been blessed to be able to breastfeed all three of my children. My youngest, Maverick, is 9 months old now and I’m hoping to be able to breastfeed him until he is a year old.” – Veronica Evans, 2018 Breastfeeding World Photo Session Participant
“I had always thought breastfeeding would be easy since it was so natural but when my little one came into the world I realized that wasn’t always the case. We noticed that she wasn’t getting back up to her birth weight.” – Meredith Larson, 2018 Breastfeeding World Photo Session Participant
“I have successfully breastfed both of my children. However, in the beginning it wasn’t always easy due to others opinions. Throughout my journey, I encountered many people who were uncomfortable around breastfeeding.” – Brandi Rocknell, 2018 Breastfeeding World Photo Session Participant
“I have breastfed each of my older three girls each over two years and I have a 4 month old girl who is now breastfeeding.” – Sonya Hicks, 2018 Breastfeeding World Photo Session Participant
“We had difficulties from the start. From an undiagnosed tongue and lip tie to low supply to allergies which forced me to change my own diet dramatically. We persevered and we are now at almost 15 months and still going strong.” – Samantha Pierce, 2018 Breastfeeding World Photo Session Participant
Another big thank you to Kindred Bravely who is our Platinum Sponsor for this year’s Big Latch On events.
They have geneoursly collaborated with us to make our Spring and Summer photo shoots possible.
Be sure to join us in our social media accounts and be up to date with the progress of our project!
And… Don’t forget to share your brelfies using our hashtag
#BreastfeedingWorld
A photography project founded in late 2014 by Alexia Garcia, photographer a Alegares Photography. Breastfeeding World aims to promote breastfeeding and encourage new moms to nurse their babies through the art of photography and story telling.
