For a long time coming, I have wanted to pursue two passion projects of mine outside of my work boundaries. The first, was birth photography and the second was the post-natal journey a mother experiences. I had the chance to pursue the latter recently and I am so grateful for these beautiful mothers you see today to have come forward and share their stories. I wanted to document the different paths we as mothers have had to take, sometimes through choice and sometimes through necessity. 

My experiences in nursing my two kids really drove this campaign. With my first born, she was given formula on day 2 as she lost too much weight and I had to supplement her on every feed. She never truly latched because of her tongue tie, and by the time she was 4 months old, my psoriasis had spread to my chest and my nipples cracked to the point she sucked blood, not milk. Are you grossed out by then? Well, you should be; it was nauseating. But its a true story, and it doesn't get spoken about enough and this is the reality in breastfeeding. There is a lot of beauty and hardship in breastfeeding; it should be celebrated, but we should also talk about the other paths we take when breastfeeding just does not work. Do we celebrate those who pump or bottle feed equally? I don't know. I don’t see it as often as I would like. I know during my own struggles I felt I was inferior to mothers who were able to breastfeed and that had a huge impact on my mental wellbeing. When my second child was born, I was even more determined to make breastfeeding work, but I got so worked up about it, I failed that much harder. I took herbal supplements, I rented hospital grade pumps, made sure my blood work was in order, dealt with my hypothyroidism, and had a toddler to look after on top of my new baby. To say, I had Post Natal Depression is an understatement. It was single handedly the toughest year of my life. 

When I began this little project, I had no idea what I was about to embark on. I set very little expectation on what the final “look” was to be. I really just wanted it to be about these mothers, their lives, and what worked for them. I sincerely hope I have done them justice. To them, I say a heartfelt thank you.