Breastfeeding your child is normal, and being able to breastfeed your child for a long time and wherever you want is also normal. This practice is however often frowned upon. This series of “infinite breastfeeding” photos highlights those mothers who have chosen long breastfeeding and aims to give breastfeeding the place it deserves.
While every mother is free to choose whether or not to breastfeed her children, in fact, many choose to breastfeed when the baby is born but soon abandon it. Why ? There are many reasons why long breastfeeding is often frowned upon. In addition, breastfeeding in a public place regularly brings its share of insults, judgments and mom-shaming to young mothers.
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To move the lines and allow mothers to breastfeed where they want and for as long as they want without fear of reprisals, Gaby Riva has produced a series of photos entitled “Breastfeeding to infinity” which has been put in before on the Spanish blog Juntitos y Revueltos.
A project born from a common desire
The goal of this project : show this moment of breastfeeding in the most natural and everyday way possible. Because, as we know, breastfeeding does not take place at specific times or in specific places. The mothers who participated in this project are women who have decided to bet on long breastfeeding, to thumb their noses at social taboos that require breastfeeding to be practiced only with a small baby and in the private sphere.
A project that started with a desire : Bring their convictions loud and clear “there is nothing wrong with continuing to breastfeed our children after two years, provided that this breastfeeding is combined with other foods”, estimates one of the mothers. The important thing is to respect the needs of mother and child.
© Gaby Riva
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Although the WHO advises breastfeeding "for up to two years or more", many mothers decide to stop breastfeeding earlier, with the duration of breastfeeding (in France) averaging 6 months. Of course, no decision can be called a bad one, because every woman knows perfectly well what is best for her and her baby. The problem highlighted by this photo series is not stopping breastfeeding but giving up breastfeeding because of the opinions, prejudices and looks of others. “I feel uncomfortable breastfeeding my child in public. He is over 18 months old and I get the disapproving eyes of people who find it weird or unhealthy to breastfeed a child who is no longer a baby ”
A very committed photographer
Gaby Riva, the photographer explains that he fell in love with this initiative when it was offered to him since he defends this type of breastfeeding. “In my family, we have six years of continuous breastfeeding: my oldest daughter's six years as well as the almost two that she shared the breast with her brother. When you choose this particular type of parenting, this is the outcome you can achieve: your son or daughter decides that now is not the time to be weaned and it is up to you, the parent, to decide if you want to. have the possibilities, the strength or the desire to respect it ", he said before adding "For me, this is an act that I am deeply proud of, as well as the decisions my wife made about it."
The photographer admits that he's not worried about the criticism his photos might take, but that everyone is involved in how mothers decide to raise their children. "Everyone believes they have the right to advise them 'the best', even if it goes against their decisions, their values or the recommendations of scientific authorities." for him , "The important thing is to adapt to the nutritional or emotional needs of babies or children."
© Gaby Riva
This series is not the first of its kind, we remember for example the project "Anytime, anywhere" with this series of photos that prove that a mom should be able to breastfeed anywhere and anytime . Initiatives that do good!
When and where to breastfeed should be something a mom decides based on her own needs and those of her baby. We must not create a taboo around breastfeeding in public, nor criticize it, it is a respectable gesture. Each mother does as she wants and as she can.