Mom's Drawings Nail The Challenges Of Breastfeeding

Mom’s gorgeous drawings show what breastfeeding is really like

Like many new moms, breastfeeding didn’t quite live up to Joy Hwang’s rosy expectations. “I’ve always imagined a life of mommy to be dreamy. Like those baby product commercials, sweetly interacting with a chubby little baby filled with happiness and a smile,” the mom to 18-month-old daughter Auri tells Scary Mommy. “No one was puking, crying or screaming at a glass-shattering decibel in dangerously close range. I failed to learn about all that until she was already in my arms. It was beautiful and brutal, with a little bit of sweetness and loneliness in between.”

Hwang decided to take those feelings and translate them into art. Her Instagram account, Mom is Drawing is filled with her beautiful artwork showing parenthood, and breastfeeding in particular, in all its messy but loving forms.

This one makes pumping look almost magical.

Cookies and milk is a classic snack time combination.

10 oz or 1, moms literally pour everything they have into every pumping session.

When your baby treats a nursing session like a Pilates class.

Those times when nursing is quiet and calm.

There’s no days off when you’re a mom, even when you’re sick.

Sometimes it’s hard to tell who’s helping who fall asleep.

Multitasking at its best.

Privacy is a myth when you’re a nursing a toddler.

A breastfeeding mom’s favorite song.

When pumping becomes a normal part of your routine.

Your baby loves your postpartum body — even when they’re flailing into it.

Hwang hopes her art resonates with other new parents and nursing moms. “I’ve turned to my sketchbook and started the “Mom is Drawing” project as my love letter to parents everywhere to celebrate and honor these new challenges small or big, from nursing, pumping, all the way to that first time when the baby slept a full stretch through the night.”