The rise of the 'Brelfie': How breast feeding became the new way for celebrity mothers to show off (2)

Miranda Kerr shared this picture of her looking glamourous while breastfeeding her son, Flynn.

The list of breastfeeding boasters is seemingly endless. Pop stars Pink and Gwen Stefani have also posed for brelfies, along with Russian model Natalia Vodianova, who went one step further by posing naked while feeding.

What irks me is that these women are glamorising something that for most mothers is exhausting and messy.

All those perfect lifestyle pictures are meant to show how wonderfully down-to-earth these celebs are when, in fact, this couldn’t be further away from reality.

Where are the eyebags from tending a wakeful baby at night? And that hard-to-shift baby fat? No hint of that anywhere on their toned, super-taut bodies.

Meanwhile, feeding their babies in public gives these women more of the thing that they crave so desperately: attention.

Tamara Ecclestone, pictured with her daugher , is certainly reaping the rewards of joining the so-called ‘mammary mafia’. Her brelfies have propelled her into the headlines and led to appearances on television.

Tamara Ecclestone is certainly reaping the rewards of joining the so-called ‘mammary mafia’. Her brelfies have propelled her into the headlines and led to appearances on morning television.

She has also been interviewed in tabloid magazines, where she defended her right to over-expose herself in this way. It seems she’s making a career out of it. Of course, there are no photos of Tamara changing Sophia’s nappy, cleaning up the post-feed vomit or even holding a cloth (the never snapped maternity nurse on 24/7 duty takes care of all that, I’m sure).

My hunch is that Tamara needs her daughter suckling on her much more than her daughter needs the milk. After all, Sophia will be tucking into three meals a day and drinking water from a sippy cup by now. And toddlers toddle by the age of two because they are meant to detach from Mum.

Breastfeeding their babies in public gives these celebrities more of the thing that they crave so desperately: attention. Pictured, Tamara Ecclestone feeds her daughter in a snap posted on her Instagram account. 

If breastfeeding were as painless, easy, tireless and tidy as these pictures suggest, trust me, we would all do it.

Personally, I found it exhausting and time-consuming (babies fall asleep, latch off, have to be woken up, latch on again, then they need their nappies changed). It involves a lot more than tucking a child on the breast.

Worryingly, however, this new competitive sport of public suckling is catching on in the ‘real’ world. I see many examples in Notting Hill, West London, where I live. And after the requisite public feeding, the toddler in question is promptly handed back to the nanny walking three steps behind.

Image is all for these look-at-me breast feeders. And I can’t be the only one who’s fed up with them.