by Melissa Willets posted in Parenting

You'd think women who were open not only to celebrating breastfeeding their babies, but to gather in a group almost naked to be photographed, would have experienced a perfect love affair with breastfeeding. You'd be wrong. When British Columbia-based photographer Trina Cary gathered 14 moms on a beach for a full moon breastfeeding photo session, she tells BabyCenter, "With no fear or care they all threw their tops aside, and sat in the sand in their undies and breastfed and encouraged each other together."
But for some of the mamas who bravely bared their postpartum bodies, getting to this moment wasn't a stroll in the park. Instead, their breastfeeding journeys were marked with pain, fear, and anxiety.
"You can imagine my heartbreak when after finally having a successful pregnancy, around three years from when we first started trying, the birth of River and my postnatal period were extremely challenging," Belinda Dorman, one of the moms who participated in the full moon photo shoot, said. She goes on to admit, "I struggled with breastfeeding...I had weeks of pain so intense I was crying when my baby woke up because I knew more pain was coming."

Through three cases of mastitis, one of which was so bad she wound up in the hospital to receive IV antibiotics, Dorman persisted in nursing her baby. Then the mama detailed more challenges: "Ten days of exclusively pumping and feeding him expressed b...