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Breastfeeding moms call BS on Rachel McAdams pumping shot: 'This does not represent us. At all.'

Rachel McAdams made headlines a few days ago after photos surfaced of her pumping during a fashion shoot while wearing designer clothes and diamonds. In the shot, a glammed-up McAdams gives the camera serious face while her breast pump does its thing.

Actress Rachel McAdams is making waves for an image of herself pumping during a photo shoot for <em>Girls Girls Girls</em> magazine. Now some moms are saying the depiction is unrealistic. (Photo: Instagram, @GirlsGirlsGirlsMagazine)
Actress Rachel McAdams is making waves for an image of herself pumping during a photo shoot for Girls Girls Girls magazine. Now some moms are saying the depiction is unrealistic. (Photo: Instagram, @GirlsGirlsGirlsMagazine)

While plenty of people have applauded the shot for normalizing breastfeeding, plenty of others have pointed out that this is far from a normal pumping experience.

One of them is Fox News meteorologist Janice Dean, who had this to say on Twitter:

She’s not the only one who isn’t impressed:

Honestly, I’m not super blown away by this either. On the one hand, it’s great that McAdams is showing that even celebrities have to take breaks to pump. But on the other, this is not what at-work pumping looks like for most moms.

The Affordable Care Act mandated that women be given workplace accommodations for breastfeeding, but those accommodations are often far from luxe — if they actually happen at all. One nationwide survey, for example, found that only 40 percent of breastfeeding women had access to both break time and private space to pump.

I’ve had to pump in a shared room at work (which can be a little awkward depending on how comfortable you feel with whipping your boobs out in front of coworkers), as well as in a tiny, windowless supply closet that was cleaned out for me (the first mom on staff, ever).

In both situations, I had zero time for serenely glamming it up on a gold-plated bed. Instead, I was frantically trying to keep up with work on my phone or laptop while trying to produce as much milk as possible in as short a time as possible to allow me to feed my kid and not fall seriously behind at work. I also took work calls and did interviews while pumping. I couldn’t afford a nanny and had to leave by a certain time every day to get to daycare before it closed — and charged me an extra $5 a minute I couldn’t afford — so time was of the essence. As for the designer wardrobe and full makeup, yeah, most new moms would agree that’s just not their reality.

To be fair, McAdams didn’t claim that she was representing all women or that she was trying to make a statement, and she didn’t even post this photo herself (photographer Claire Rothstein did). But it’s important for people who aren’t moms to understand that this shouldn’t be a standard that the rest of us are held to. Really — we’re just doing the best we can, sans Versace.

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