Fortunately, Alek was as good as gold throughout the speeches, and collecting my degree in business and human resources management was such a proud moment.
A week later, I was flicking through my graduation pics and came across the snap of me breastfeeding Alek.
‘I should send it to the university to say thank you,’ I joked. And, thinking it would be funny, I did!
The uni loved it. They asked to share it on their Facebook page and we agreed.
‘Perhaps it will get 100 likes,’ Chris laughed.
Incredibly, the pic was much more popular than that. Within hours of USC sharing it, the photo had received over 100,000 likes! I couldn’t believe my breastfeeding pic had gone viral. It was surreal but for me it wasn’t a big deal.
As any breastfeeding mum will understand, I go through the process every two-and-a-half hours!
But 40 hours later, the photo had over 200,000 likes and over the next month it was shared more than 10,000 times.
Lots of women sent lovely messages – some said it was proof that it’s possible to juggle motherhood and studying. Other people said I had inspired them to apply to university.
But I felt attacked when I received abusive messages too. Spiteful trolls called me an attention seeker and said I needed to ‘cover up’.
Spiteful trolls called me an attention seeker...
One said that they were sick of breastfeeding mums taking pictures and ramming them down people’s throats.
It was so insulting. I had never gone out looking for attention.
My breastfeeding photo may have gone viral by mistake, but I’ve decided to focus on the positives. At the end of the day, my lovely picture shows the bond between mother and son. And what could be more important than that?
Originally published in that's life! Issue 3, 2014.