Another mama also struggled with breastfeeding, having to express and bottle feed for a few weeks when her daughter was just a newborn, in order to rest her cracked and bleeding nipples. “I had to use nipple shields for 3 months as Bella couldn’t latch properly without them,” says Leilani Power. “I shed many tears but was determined to persevere. Now Bella is 9 months and feeding is second nature. I wanted to celebrate how far we’ve both come.”
And if that doesn’t encourage you to keep going, mamas, there is one more story that will show you just how determined women can be when it comes to their breastfeeding journey.
Belinda Dorman had trouble conceiving and then went on to have a difficult birth and postnatal period too.
She went on to struggle with breastfeeding, going through the absolute agony of three cases of mastitis, the first so bad she ended up in hospital for IV antibiotics for three days. Against these odds, she persisted, going on to exclusive pumping for ten days and feeding her baby expressed breast milk – to give her nipples a chance to heal, “only to have an allergic reaction to disposable breast pads afterwards and have a full body dermatitis reaction”.
While doctors and others were telling her “time for the bottle”, she resisted, persisted and eventually succeeded to breastfeed her baby. When she heard about Trina Cary’s photoshoot, she jumped at the chance. “I am a very supportive and non judgmental person,” Belinda says, “this wasn’t about anyone else’s journey but my own and damn I deserve to celebrate that!”
We couldn’t agree more. Well done mama, and well done Trina for bringing these women and their stories together. Still, it hasn’t always been easy for Trina to be able to share images like these in the online world. In these times of online censorship of women’s bodies, Trina says she’s fighting to have these images freely circulated.
“I have had a couple issues with Facebook censorship with nipples, baby bums, etc, and have been banned for this reason multiple times. So once again I am fighting against Facebook and Instagram’s censorship guidelines. My goal is to empower and spread love throughout this world, we need less judgement and more acceptance. <3 ”
So – it’s time for you to spread the love!
Trina Cary Photography – Raw, Powerful Fine Art Photography. Visit her website Trina Cary Photography, and find her on Facebook and Instagram for more incredibly beautiful photographs.
To see the full gallery of photographs from this breastfeeding session, click HERE.
