Breast-feeding is a beautiful thing — seriously, just take a look at these stunning photos — and certainly doesn't deserve the political backlash and public shaming breast-feeding parents often get.
While it's not right for everyone, feeding a child from your body can be an incredible bonding experience for a parent. And it's an experience that doesn't have to be limited to just one parent, which is made clear in a stunning set of photos from Australian birth photographer Lacey Barratt.
Two new moms posed for Barratt while each taking a turn breastfeeding their daughter. Barratt then shared those photos on Instagram.
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"Can we talk about breastfeeding and same sex couples for a minute? Can we talk about how NORMAL this should be," she wrote in the post. "Having a desire to share the responsibility with your partner is normal and POSSIBLE. Ladies, did you know, that you DO NOT have to be the birth mother in order to breast-feed?"
In all honesty, we didn't know breast-feeding is possible for a parent who did not carry their child. But it is. In fact, the the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that adoptive mothers be counseled on the benefits of induced lactation. Breast-fed babies are at lower risk for a "variety of infectious diseases, ear infections, and diarrhea," according to the American Academy of Pediatrics.
Steph Eden-McIlroy, who posed for the photos with her daughter LJ and partner Claire Eden-McIlroy, induced lactation using a combination of pumping with a hospital grade breast pump and taking an herbal supplement to stimulate breast milk production, the Daily Mail reports.
"Even without carrying a child you can still nourish and feed your child from your body," Claire told the Daily Mail.
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