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Epic photo celebrates the beauty of feeding -- both by breast and bottle

(Facebook/Foxy Photography)
(Facebook/Foxy Photography)

Over the last few months, we’ve heard a lot about breastfeeding. From celebrities sharing photos in solidarity with normalizing the act to women crying out on social media after they’ve been publicly shamed, breastfeeding has become one hot topic.

But Abbie Fox has had a different experience.

As a mother herself, Fox was unable to breastfeed her first child and found the beautiful images women were sharing online a painful reminder of that fact.

“When I had my first child nursing didn’t work,” she says in a Facebook post. “I did everything I was supposed to do but my little chunker of a newborn was too impatient and even specialists couldn’t help us.”

While Fox’s family was supportive when she eventually opted to give up on breastfeeding and switch to the bottle, others made her feel guilty about the decision.

“I was told I must not have tried hard enough, I must’ve been doing something wrong, and many times people told me that my baby wouldn’t be as healthy as those who nursed up to a year at least, if not longer,” she says. “It was very hard getting criticism from those who I thought would be the most supportive, other moms.”

When Fox gave birth to her second child, she breastfed with no problems.

Being able to see things from both sides gave Fox a sense of appreciation for what mothers who breastfeed, as well as those who don’t, go through. What she realized was that the most important thing was that babies were fed.

To illustrate that, she gathered 21 women — both breast and bottle feeders — for an epic shot in the forest, which she entitled “Fed is Best.”

“I never see beautiful bottle feeding sessions, only nursing sessions! So I wanted to do something different,” she explains.

In the photo, there is a mix of women breastfeeding and bottle feeding — each looking equally beautiful.

“While planning this I was able to talk to some of the ladies individually who had the same experience I did so it was nice to do this for them who are going through this now!”

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