Photos: Ivette Ivens
Motherhood is awesome. And it’s often unappreciated in its beauty. Especially breastfeeding, which is absolutely essential to help children gain the nutritional building blocks they need when they’re first starting out.
Breast milk has been proven to help babies fight viruses and bacteria and lowers infants’ risks of having asthma or allergies later in life. Plus babies who breastfeed for the first six months of their lives suffer from fewer ear infections, respiratory illnesses, and digestive illness.
But as a society, women who breastfeed in public, are still shunned. And it’s difficult to understand why. That’s the main reason photographer Ivette Ivens put together this gorgeous photo project, Breastfeeding Goddesses, which she released through her website and with Natural Parent magazine. The project is a personal one to her.
“The idea came about when I first posted a photo of myself breastfeeding my son,” she said. “The amount of negative comments and hatred that I received was overwhelming. I could not believe how something so natural and beautiful could be portrayed as something so terrible. Instead of backing down, I turned my anger into the breastfeeding photography, with hopes to normalize it.”
Her photos are spot on, enchanting, even awe-inspiring as she takes an artistic look at the art of motherhood.
See more of Ives imagery here.
