Breastfeeding Is Beautiful: Olivia Wilde Joins Mums Sharing Their Nursing Snaps

Whatever you thought of Gisele's breastfeeding selfie, there's no denying that it started a trend among models to use their breasts in a rather different way than they do in most photoshoots - to raise awareness and normalise breastfeeding.

What those boobs are for in the first place, right?

And now actress Olivia Wilde has joined in with a beautiful image of herself breasfteeding her son Otis, five months, for a photoshoot in Glamour Magazine.

Olivia explained: "Being shot with Otis is so perfect because any portrait of me right now isn’t complete without my identity as a mother being a part of that. Breastfeeding is the most natural thing."

Originally Gisele was criticised for her photo's caption '#multitasking' as she wasn't exactly doing any of the work herself.

But despite a few swipes (including one by Emmy Rossum) most people were touched by the image of the mother nursing her daughter, and pleased that someone so high profile chose to share the image of her experience.

She followed Miranda Kerr's beautiful shot of herself breastfeeding son Flynn as a very young baby.

And now the floodgates have opened.

Last month Natalia Vodianova posted a beautiful image of herself breastfeeding her son Maxim. The tasteful snap was taken by photographer Paolo Rovers and received much acclaim on social media.

And even more recently, Australian blogger and model Candice Lake followed suit.

The blogger/model/photographer shared a snap of her breastfeeding her son on her first day back at work, two months after giving birth.

She captioned the image 'First day back at work...with my favourite little person'.

But it's not just models who are getting in on the act. A quick scan of tumblr or Instagram and you'll see the #breastfeedingisbeautiful tag is gathering momentum, as mums everywhere show off the variety of their babies' nursing needs.

Breastfeeding activist Jessie Hunter shares her nursing pictures on Instagram in a variety of poses, from brushing her teeth to holiday snaps like this one.

And stay-at-home-mum and mummy blogger Myia O'Brien (above) shares many aspects of her life as a mum on her blog and on Instagram - and breastfeeding is a big part of that.

Many of the mums sharing pictures of their breastfeeding journeys are simply posting their parenting lives online, and naturally breastfeeding is a big part of that.

But others are conciously promoting breastfeeding to try and encourage women and normalise it for non-parents, many of whom rarely or never see breastfeeding and don't know how to react.

Despite Government campaigns in the UK encouraging women to breastfeed (Breast Is Best being a frequently-touted phrase) we still have one of the lowest breastfeeding rates in the world. And many mums are put off by the idea of feedig in public, a lack of support and awareness, and also facilities.

The hope is that by high profile women such as these models, as well as everyday mums, sharing their pictures, breastfeeding will become completely commonplace and attitudes and facilities will improve - making things easier for all nursing mums.

Bravo ladies!