A Lakeland photographer is on a mission to change perceptions of breastfeeding.
Christine Santos has put together a series of images called “Nursing is Natural” and she’s trying to win an online campaign to raise money to market her exhibit and raise awareness.
Santos chose nature to create artistic photos of breastfeeding. This exhibit is a personal journey for the 29-year-old photographer.
“When my youngest daughter was 5 weeks old, we went to my oldest daughter’s school for a spelling bee and she was little so I turned around faced the wall and covered up and nursed,” Santos recalled. “The very next day I got a phone call saying that, had the AP (assistant principal) seen me nursing I would have been kicked out of the auditorium.”
Santos said they told her it made other parents uncomfortable. The anger she felt about that phone call was enough to motivate her to action. She set out to photograph women nursing in an effort to change perceptions.
“I want to get it to the point, whether they see moms nursing with a bottle or they see mom nursing their child, the mental reaction is the same… oh it’s a mom feeding their kid,” she said.
Tagged: breastfeeding, family, Florida, mother, nursing, Photography
