Behind the Scenes of the 2009 Australian Breastfeeding Association Calendar

By Sally Dillon

What does a celebrity New York chef, a bushwalking Aussie and a Canadian ice-fisher have in common?

They’re all breastfeeding mums who feature in next year’s Australian Breastfeeding Association (ABA) calendar.

Now in its 10th edition, the 2009 calendar consists of images donated by photographers passionate about spreading the breastfeeding message and is the Victorian branch’s main fundraiser. As a bonus, next year’s calendar covers 16 months. “There were too many beautiful photos – we just couldn’t choose,” says calendar producer Barbara Glare.

The photographs cover the spectrum of the breastfeeding and nurturing experience. From a rugged-up mother feeding her baby on a frozen lake to a mum feeding on the beach; from one baby nursing to two at once; from a newborn, only minutes old, to a toddler. There’s even a photo of a dad, cradling his milk-drunk one-week-old over his tattooed shoulder.

Clive McWaters, the award-winning Wangaratta photographer behind the tattooed dad, is a strong believer that breastfeeding “is the best thing any mother can do for her baby.” A grandfather, Clive says, “As you get older you have more of an understanding of how important those first years are, how critical it is when they [the kids] leave the nest, how assured they are…and the bonding and nurturing [of breastfeeding] lays the foundation for that.”

Kirsty Burns, of Adelaide’s Appleseed Photography, treasures her own memories of breastfeeding her two children, and encourages her clients to let her capture a photo of them breastfeeding. She knows from personal experience that the joy of breastfeeding can be ‘taken away from you earlier than you expected’. This will be Kirsty’s third year in the calendar and she hopes that by contributing her photographs she can help “give women the confidence to breastfeed.”

Byron Bay photographer Donatella Parisini is another calendar regular—her image graced last year’s cover. She joyfully breastfed her two children and hopes to encourage other women to breastfeed. This year’s photograph was taken in one of her favourite places, a tea tree lake in Suffolk Park, traditionally an Aboriginal women’s place. “I really love that lake and I respect it by always giving back a prayer and a flower,” she says. “I use the beauty and energy [of the place] to give magic to my photos.”

This year’s cover photographer, Jodie Chard of Brisbane’s Natural Kidz Photography, breastfed her daughter for 2-1/2 years and says “becoming a mother was the catalyst that gave my love for photography a true purpose and direction. Discovering the world through the eyes of a child is a truly inspiring experience. Just being there to capture the first time they lift their head up, or smile, or feel the sand between their toes is such a privilege.”

Sydney photographer Casandra Anguita Deep managed to take the self-portrait many mums dream of capturing by positioning a tripod-mounted camera above her while her 22-month-old daughter Zali fed. She took the image as part of a professional photographers’ challenge to take a photo a day throughout January. “I really wanted to capture her because it’s hard to get them [feeding] that late. She just hops on and hops off all day,” she says. With three children, Casandra says breastfeeding is her life, “It happens so often so much off the day.”

Not all the images have been taken by commercial photographers. Bonnie Hall submitted a photograph taken by her husband Sheridan Randall. She was bushwalking with daughter Astrid when Sheridan snapped the photograph. Bonnie was breastfed until she was three and says as an adult she has a feeling of connectedness to her mother that she’s sure relates to the bond they shared in the early years.

The calendar features a photograph of my own child, Banjo, twenty minutes after he was born at home on a sunny winter’s morning. As we relaxed in the birth pool marvelling at our easy, joyous birth he found his own way to the breast. I looked down to see him latching on all by himself and was elated afterwards to discover that our birth photographer and friend, Uli Eichhorn, had captured that magical moment.

Another photograph from the home album to have made it into the calendar is that of Annette Baker feeding four-month-old daughter Autumn outside in the middle of a Canadian winter. The family was fishing on a frozen lake near their Peace River home in northern Alberta and Annette is proud to show “you and your baby can be outside in all seasons,” though she says the photo makes it look easier than it was.

“That particular day it was relatively warm at minus 10 degrees Celsius, but because we were mostly sitting we had lots of layers on. The layers are the issue, as with bulky jackets and jumpers on both of us, plus layers on me to pull up, getting Autumn’s mouth and body close enough for good attachment was not easy—I had to squish her into me, and expose a bit more of my midriff than was comfortable!”

Annette received an ABA subscription as a baby gift from her sister Estelle, a breastfeeding counsellor in Queensland. She says the calendar shows that the “ABA reaches all parts of the world, and gives confidence to mums across the Pacific in another hemisphere, in another climate.”

New York chef Gabrielle Hamilton, owner of the acclaimed East Village Prune Restaurant, is featured nursing her son in a photograph taken for coffee table book My Last Supper: 50 Great Chefs and Their Final Meals.

Also from the Americas is Vermont photographer Sarah Lavigne, who submitted a photograph of a tandem-feeding mother. Sarah says, “It is amazing to me when people tandem nurse. [It’s] the height of feminine, beautiful, and strong!” She wants to get more breastfeeding images out in the community: “I live in fairly liberal Vermont and still people are not always supportive of breastfeeding and breastfeeding moms. As a photographer I feel the more positive images of women and breastfeeding the better!”

Barbara Glare agrees and says as well as being “a joyful depiction of the beautiful relationship of breastfeeding” the calendar is an important publicity vehicle for the ABA.

“I hope it will stimulate conversations about breastfeeding. I’d love to see it on walls everywhere and I hope that it will help normalise breastfeeding as the way babies and young children are fed in the community,” she says.

If you would like to purchase one or more copies of the ABA 2009 calendar visit Mother’s Direct.