Olivia Wilde, I salute you! As she bares her boobs and champions breastfeeding mums

This week, a photo was released of the glamourous and very beautiful Olivia Wilde breastfeeding her baby son Otis, which was taken for the September issue of Glamour Magazine, and I was surprised to find I was very pleased to see it. 

I did breast feed Coco until she was 13 months old but I have never been a massive advocator of breast feeding in a shout about it kind of way, rather I had always believed that what made the mother happiest was best.   But unexpectedly, the photo did stir up some warm and fuzzy feelings, just to know that someone is bringing breastfeeding into the mainstream in a positive way.

I was very lucky to never experience any unwanted attention from any of the general public when breastfeeding Coco out and about, whether it be unfriendly stares or comments, but I think this is largely due to almost always being with my pack of fellow new mums who were also willingly flashing their nipples in name of feeding their newborn. It was a case of safety in numbers and living in a family friendly neighborhood also helped.

This is not to say that I’m not apprehensive about doing it again second time round.  As well as the joys you usually hear about… leaky boobs, sore, cracked nipples, engorgement… the list goes on…there is also the stuff they don’t tell you about.  Such delights can occur as nipple thrush (awful!), and having one boob significantly larger than the other for weeks on end (much to the amusement of my mother!).

Also, there is the lack of freedom.  I breastfeed Coco exclusively for that full year, and although I am now really happy I did, it wasn’t completely from choice.  Due to my just mentioned condition (it’s too horrible to type again!) I left it too late with a bottle and the stubborn little so and so just wouldn’t accept anything else.  This meant that Coco was tied to me and me alone, so I could kiss goodbye to any evenings out with friends or nights away with my husband.  Even getting to the hairdresser needed a plan of military precision. Coco needed milk and I was the only one who could give it to her. 

Close friends without children would stare at me with a look of absolute horror when I would tell them I was still breastfeeding when Coco was 10 months, meaning sadly I couldn’t make a birthday or hen do away.  As if I was breastfeeding a teenager.  “Can’t you just give her a bottle?” they would sometimes say.  If only it was that easy!  It's often discussed how bottle-feeding mums worry that breastfeeding mums look at them in judgement but that couldn't be further from the truth.  How I longed for Coco to take a bottle. 

So it makes me happy to see that someone in the spotlight like Olivia was game enough to bare her boobs and show the world how every day and normal breastfeeding is, and not something we should be ashamed of.  Whilst I am well aware from friends that bottle-feeding also comes with its own set of issues, breastfeeding too is not always a barrel of laughs, and it’s nice to know there are some people brave enough to put their boobs out there and champion us other normal breastfeeding mums.  

Let’s just hope I’ll look as amazing as she does second time round! Maybe just less beautiful dress and full face of make-up, but more a bit of mascara and an unstained t-shirt…miracles can happen.

Gemma x