The new W magazine cover featuring Angelina Jolie breastfeeding one of her 3-month-old twins will inspire more mothers to breast-feed, experts say.
Shannon Fox, a psychotherapist with Momlogic.com, told Reuters, "If someone as popular, beautiful and together as Angelina is breast-feeding her children, it inspires other women to do so themselves."
The shot — one of several taken by Jolie's partner Brad Pitt — shows the actress, 33, smiling, while a tiny hand is visible at the bottom of the frame.
Click here to see the W photos and article
"Mothers of twins report it takes a lot of time, effort and physical energy to breast-feed. I think the picture is beautiful," La Leche League International spokeswoman Jane Krouse told Reuters.
Added Andi Silverman, author of Mama Knows Breast: "I think it is fabulous. Seeing a celebrity like Angelina Jolie breast-feed can be a role model to encourage women to make a choice that is wonderful for their baby."
About 70 percent of American mothers breast-feed their newborns, but the rate falls dramatically after six months, Reuters reports.
In the interview that accompanies the photos, Jolie says her 7-year-old son Maddox has developed a fondness for guns and knives.
“My mom took me to buy my first daggers when I was 11 or 12,” she recalls. “And I’ve already bought Maddox some things. We take him to a special shop.” She emphasizes that the knife blades are dulled so they’re not dangerous, and that the purchases are accompanied by discussions about violence.
She also says she and Pitt, who have six children, intend to add at least one more child to their brood.
“I do think that I’m good in a partnership now,” she says. “I think it just needed to be the right man. It’s not just that I love being in Brad’s company, which obviously I do, but it’s that we both roll up our sleeves and take on what we care about in the same way. I have a lot of respect for him, and he helps me to be better and fight hard for things that I love.”
And she's not shy about letting Pitt photograph her while breastfeeding.
“I’m with a man who’s evolved enough to look at my body and see it as more beautiful, because of the journey it has taken and what it has created,” she says. “He genuinely sees it that way. So I genuinely feel even sexier.”
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