Before she was pregnant, photographer Gina Brocker never really thought about breastfeeding. It wasn’t until the birth of her first child that she became intimately aware of how life-altering breastfeeding becomes, for both good and frustrating reasons. “It became such a big part of my life, and I wanted to start exploring that through photography,” says Brocker, who has a three-year-old son and a daughter who is five months. “I felt like I was thrown into the deep end, and other women felt similarly.”
For two-and-a-half years, Brocker has photographed women breastfeeding — at home, at work, in the car, in the bathroom, everywhere. The goal of the project is to both empower women and normalize the practice. Her photographs are incredibly intimate, and many women told Brocker they agreed to participate in order to share their experience, including the challenges, and to help other women feel more confident about breastfeeding in public.
The value of breastfeeding is well-established, but whether pregnant women receive the support they need to do so is another story. It wasn’t until 2010 that a national law was passed requiring employers to offer workers a location and protected time off to pump breast milk during the workday. There’s also the ongoing debate over whether official mandates to breastfeed interfere with women’s agency when it comes to feeding their child. Currently, a little over half of American women are still breastfeeding at six months.
Photographing a variety of circumstances women face when it comes to breastfeeding, including working women, was an important part of Brocker’s project. “I hope when people see this series, if they are breastfeeding, they feel they’re not alone and empowered to do what they want,” she says. “If people are not breastfeeding, or it’s not a part of their world, I would love them to see it as a beautiful and natural part of life.” — Alexandra Sifferlin
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