By Hannah Schenker
A same-sex couple shared photographs of themselves both breastfeeding their four-week-old daughter to raise awareness of LGBTQI+ families.
Claire Eden-McIlroy and her partner Steph, from Australia, had the photos taken by birth photographer Lacey Barratt, which when shared via Instagram gained interest from around the world.
Claire gave birth to their daughter LJ in January 2017. Steph really wanted to breastfeed LJ as well, so was advised by their midwife to take a hormone that stimulates breastmilk production and stimulate milk production throughout the pregnancy with a hospital-grade breast pump. She also took the herb Fenugreek, known to stimulate prolactin, a hormone that triggers the production of breast milk. It wasn’t necessarily an easy journey but it worked: Steph is able to breastfeed their child as well.
‘It’s totally natural and comfortable and something we do every day in our house and we wanted to raise awareness of same sex couples,’ Claire told Daily Mail Australia.
“Can we talk about breastfeeding and same sex couples for a minute?” photographer Lacey says in her post. “Can we talk about how NORMAL this should be? 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 breastfeed?”
