National Breastfeeding Month takes place every August and highlights the beauty and challenges of breastfeeding. Since it was declared in 2011, women all over the country have taken steps to educate, advocate and celebrate this unique bonding moment between a mother and her child.
Breastfeeding benefits both the mother and the baby. Not only will the baby receive antibodies to grow their immune system, but it can also reduce the chance of the baby developing short or long term illnesses. According to the CDC, breastfeeding can reduce a woman’s risk of breast or ovarian cancer as well as type 2 diabetes and high blood pressure.
But breastfeeding doesn’t always come easy. In fact, it’s common for women to face some sort of challenge. Common issues can be sore nipples, plugged ducts, low milk supply, engorgement, and more.
Here are some of our favorite celebrity mothers who embraced breastfeeding and used their strength to get over the hurdles.
In 2020, Tia Mowry posted a photo of her breastfeeding her daughter Cairo. In that post, she candidly shared how she had a difficult time breastfeeding her eldest child, Cree. Additionally, she experienced mastitis in the first few months of her breastfeeding Cairo years later. But she stressed the importance of not giving up and trying again. From the photo, it appears they eventually got it down.
Also in 2020, Ciara posted this adorable picture displaying the beautiful bond between her and Vanessa Bryant. The two were all smiles as they breastfed their youngins under nursing covers. At the time, Ciara had just given birth to her third child, Win Wilson, and Bryant was nursing her and her late husband, Kobe Bryant’s, 1-year-old daughter, Capri Kobe.
In this photo, Thandie Newton was breastfeeding her son, Booker Jombe Parker, in 2016. She once shared how she had to breastfeed him during her Skype audition for Westworld. She was on the phone with the showrunners when she heard him crying and her motherly instincts kicked in. It was feeding time! She thought nursing him on the call would cost her the job, but one of the showrunners later came on screen breastfeeding her child as well.
Since Jhené Aiko welcomed her son, Noah Hasani, into the world, she and her ex-partner Big Sean have been very careful to protect his privacy by not showing his face. However, they do still choose to show some sweet moments with him, like when Aiko posted this moment of her breastfeeding him.
When Cardi B. gave birth to her and Offset’s daughter, Blossom, she shared a heartwarming photo of her nursing. But it is not lost on the rapper how difficult breastfeeding can be. For her partnership with organic baby formula company, Bobbie, she candidly said during a livestream, “Pumping takes literally your whole f-cking day. Pumping is not something easy to do. There’s women that gotta go to work. There’s women that, they just have to depend on the formula.”
Rihanna proudly brought her eldest son RZA to work when he was just a few months old in 2022. While shooting for a new Fenty campaign, they captured a photo of RZA grabbing a quick meal.
Yaya Dacosta joined the #NormalizeNursing movement, started in 2013 by Gisele Bündchen. The former America’s Next Top Model star posted this beautiful photo of her nursing her son, Sankara Alafia. She recently shared on the One54 Africa Podcast how she was also breastfeeding him in between takes of shooting the Whitney Houston biopic,Whitney.
8. Jayla Brenae, 31
Social media star Jayla Brenae opened up about the challenging journey of breastfeeding her daughter Nyla back in 2021. From experiencing bleeding and cracked nipples to feeling the weight of the milk in her chest, breastfeeding wasn’t initially a pleasant experience for her. But after much prayer and repeated attempts, they found their rhythm.
9. Clarisse Agbegnenou, 33
Olympic gold medalist Clarisse Agbegnenou has been advocating for lactating athletes since 2020. In 2024, the Paris Olympic Committee announced that they would provide hotels for French athletes where they can nurse their children.
Like her twin sister, Tamera Mowry did not have a smooth time breastfeeding her son Aden. She found it challenging to get him to latch on and her nipples were callusing in the process. She was in pain for about eight weeks straight. Eventually, she was able to get Aden to latch. The beautiful part about her journey with her son was that it helped make breastfeeding easier for her daughter Ariah. She latched immediately when she was born.
Kandi Burruss revealed what breastfeeding could look like in real time in 2016 when her son, Ace Tucker, was just an infant. The former Real Housewives of Atlanta star showed that even when mommy is trying to get her glam on, babies still want what they want, when they want it.
In her 2020 interview with The Real, Remy Ma proved that she got her mommy thing down packed. When she and Papoose’s daughter, Reminisce MacKenzie Jr., got fussy during the interview, she seamlessly pulled up her shirt and breastfed her on camera. She did it so smoothly around the 9:00 mark, you can barely tell.
13. Holly Robinson Peete, 61
Holly Robinson Peete, who is a mother of four, said being able to nurse her twins, Ryan and Rodney Peete, 28, made her feel empowered. She shared adorable photos of her breastfeeding in slide three. Per StoryMD, she once said that breastfeeding actually helped with pregnancy weight loss. She said, “There’s a reason you’re hungry. It’s because you’re feeding your kids.”
Porsha Williams has shared photos of her breastfeeding her daughter Pilar Jhena McKinley on Instagram and briefly mentioned that there were struggles. She later told Hollywood Life that breastfeeding was a thing of the past and explained why. She said, “I’m not breastfeeding. It didn’t work out for me. I really did try, but I just wasn’t producing enough milk so it just didn’t work out for me.”
Dreamdoll was definitely trying to work smarter, not harder, when breastfeeding her daughter, Jream. She made the most of her breastfeeding time by using the pump to express milk from her other breast.
This clip shows Tiny Harris feeding her and T.I.’s youngest child, Heiress Harris, when she was just a baby. Now that baby is 10 years old and joining her mother on stages for performances.
Tiny’s eldest daughter, Zonnique Pullins, didn’t hesitate to keep it real about her breastfeeding experience. She even said in a livestream later that it was “too painful,” so she did not continue.
19. Melanie Fiona, 43
In 2016, Melanie Fiona posted a precious photo of her breastfeeding her then-newborn son Cameron Lincoln. She used the post to advocate for women’s rights to breastfeed, even if that means publicly, in order to make sure their child is well nourished.
Tatyana Ali posted this photo of her cradling and breastfeeding her baby as part of the Normalize Breastfeeding movement. She once opened up about being criticized for breastfeeding one of her children until they were two years old. The actress said she wanted more support than judgment.
