Breastfeeding photos capture a beautifully touching moment of a mother spending quality time with her baby.
But although Nikke Whitman - a photographer based in America - loves seeing and taking these photos, she decided there weren't enough photos that captured the bonding that occurs as a mother bottle feeds her baby, so she decided to even out the balance by sharing a series of beautiful bottle-feeding photos on her blog.
Whitman told HuffPost UK Parents: "My inspiration came from a mixture of things: my own experiences, the heartache I had seen in friends over the years who had complications breastfeeding and were broken-hearted over not being able to nurse, and friends who have felt or experienced judgment first-hand when using a bottle."
Whitman admitted that she tried to breastfeed for the health of her children, but her body only allowed her "just shy of four months" minimum.
She continued: "It was a woman called Brittnae's [pictured above] story, which is featured on my blog, that brought all the stories together for me and the light bulb went off.
"I thought to myself, 'I celebrate nursing and bonding in imagery, why don't I celebrate bottle feeding and bonding in imagery?'"
Whitman said that after breastfeeding for a short time she turned to bottle feeding with all her children.
"With my youngest it was great to see the whole family taking turns getting to feed Amelia.
"I wanted to share these photos to show that bonding doesn't only happen at the breast.
"While I support breastfeeding, I also wanted to show that I support bottle feeding as well.
"What matters is that we encourage our babies to thrive and provide them with the tools to do that as we can."
The photographer told HuffPost UK Parents that she believes it can be easy to get caught up in not understanding why someone does what they do, because sometimes we think our own way is the best way.
"My hope was to encourage mothers who have felt guilt or shame over bottle feeding to lose that and encourage mamas to support one another and to keep doing what is best for their babies," she added.
See the full Bottle Feeding Is Beautiful photo series below.
