Mara Martin is one of the first models to breastfeed her baby on the ramp.
We've seen models and actors flaunt their baby bumps on magazine covers, on the ramp.
We've also seen models breastfeeding on magazine covers, in between shoots. But an American model shattered stereotypes by breastfeeding her five-month old daughter at a Miami ramp.
Mara Martin walked the runway at a Sports Illustrated swimsuit show on Sunday wearing a gold bikini.
Martin nursed her five-month-old daughter Aria -- who wore a green swimsuit and blue-black noise-cancelling headphones -- as she walked the ramp.
The 32-yr-old from Michigan was part of the 16 finalists (strong, beautiful women including a cancer survivor) who'd walked the ramp in Miami on July 15.
On Tuesday, the model-mum took to Instagram to share her excitement. 'Wow! WHAT A NIGHT! Words can’t even describe how amazing I feel after being picked to walk the runway for @si_swimsuit. Anyone who knows me, knows it has been a life long dream of mine.'
'I can’t believe I am waking up to headlines with me and my daughter in them for doing something I do every day. It is truly so humbling and unreal to say the least. I’m so grateful to be able to share this message and hopefully normalize breastfeeding and also show others that women CAN DO IT ALL!,' Martin wrote on Instagram.
How it happened
For those of you who think it was a publicity stunt, Martin explains why it wasn't.
'She was getting a little hungry and it was her dinner time, because the show kept getting pushed back,' Martin told NBC Today. 'So when one of the team suggested she go ahead and nurse her on the runway, she said yes.'
Breastfeeding in public
This is not the first time a woman has taken her baby to work and breastfed in public. In 2010, Italian president Licia Ronzulli had taken her new born daughter to attend a Parliament session.
The WHO recommends exclusive breastfeeding until the age of six months, and partial breastfeeding for two years or more.
Meanwhile, in India, a model's photograph of her breastfeeding a child on magazine cover sparked outrage.
The High Court dismissed a petition and ruled in the magazine's favour. 'Going by the contemporary community standards and without troubling ourselves with patent offensiveness—we may observe that, given the picture’s particular posture and its background setting (mother feeding the baby), as depicted in the magazine, it is not prurient or obscene; nor even suggestive of it. We, therefore, dismiss the writ petition,' the judge said.
