Every photograph in this gallery belongs to a woman with a breastfeeding story. Sometimes mothers and their babies take to it like ducks to water, and sometimes there are problems. When problems come along some women fight tooth and nail to get the right support and other mothers are too tired or embarassed to ask for help. We are told it’s natural and easy – and with the right support, it can be! In our country though (the UK) breastfeeding support is patchy at best. Midwives are not uniformly trained and are frequently overstretched.
Very few peer support schemes exist within the NHS, even though they have been proven to increase breastfeeding rates elsewhere. Some schemes do exist which are operated by other agencies (La Leche League Breastfeeding Network, National Childbirth Trust, Sure Start etc), but many brand-new mummies don’t ever get to hear about them and volunteers frequently have to pay for their own training. Sometimes in order to get specialist support a mother may think their only option is to pay for it…
In the photographs which follow not all the mothers had an easy time of it. Some were able to overcome huge odds and successfully breastfeed. Other mothers were determined to feed second or third time around, feeling that the loss to them of being unable to breastfeed their earlier children was something they did not want to repeat.
When I ask mothers who have stopped breastfeeding what they felt was missing, the answer is very often the same. Not enough support.
I will be adding some pictures from mothers who found themselves unable to feed their babies soon. I want to tell their stories too. We can learn a lot from them! If you have a story you’d like to share, please get in touch.
People often ask if it’s possible to feed from only one breast.
The photograph below answers this question.
This mother has had two babies and has breastfed them for a total of 12 months sofar. I can’t tell which breast she’s using to feed either!
This mother wanted her photograph to be included to prove that it is still possible to breastfeed after a breast augmentation!
This gorgeous pair of boobies below have been breastfeeding for a total of
20 months so far 
This is the type of breastfeeding image we are most accustomed to seeing in the press these days….
A negative one 
(btw they’ve been doing *this for 8 months now…)
This mummy breastfed her two children for a combined total of 36 months!
They still look pretty perky to me Ms Blundell… 
This mother has three children and has breastfed them all. She dispells the myth that it’s not possible to devote the time to breastfeeding when you have other children. Some people think it’s not ‘fair’ on their other kids – but does this little boy look like he minds?
The picture below shows this child’s first proper breastfeed at 4 weeks and 5 days. Why the delay? He was severely tongue-tied (like his brother before him) and needed to have an operation to correct this. He was completely unable to feed from birth and his mother had to express milk for him. Initally he was syringe fed, his mother refused to give formula top-ups and requested donor milk (something I also did), and her son was fed her expressed milk until the moment pictured below.
Giving mothers the impression that breastfeeding will be problem-free isn’t helpful. Many really want to breastfeed and are so shocked when a problem comes along that they immedately assume they ‘cant do it’. Problem-solving knowledge and expertise needs to be close at hand, and so often it’s not. A new mother’s confidence is low anyway (they’ve just given birth!) and often they aren’t as assertive as they might be in the rest of their lives. A well-intentioned friend or family member might try to seek help for them, but all to often that ’help’ comes in the form of - well – formula!
The women above are still the exceptions in our society – not the rule.
However, we can learn from each other and that’s what this project is all about.
If you have a breastfeeding story you’d like to share, please get in touch.
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