InstagramCarlee Benear, a mum of three from Texas has just smashed mum goals and she’s got an inspirational message for you.
In a feat of both peak physical fitness and enduring maternal love, Carlee breastfeeds her youngest every day while on the yoga mat.
Carlee has taken to documenting her postnatal poses on Instagram in a mission to ‘plant just one seed of inspiration and remind [people] to move their body, open their mind up, stop forgetting to love themselves and remind them that the world needs their happiness too.’
Some of the poses are recognisable even to a yoga virgin like me; others, however, look a little more precarious.
But fear not, Benear is confident in her yoga prowess and adamant her daughter is never in any danger of being crushed if a pose goes badly.
She said, ‘It may look impossible to the untrained eye especially, until you discover how it’s done and what your own body is capable of. I used to be very clumsy… Yoga helped me understand gravity and the grace that comes along with it.’
Carlee told UNILAD that taking one-month-old Maramaylee onto the yoga mat with her has brought them closer together.
She elaborated:
My message for people is not so much about breastfeeding and its benefits, it’s about the importance of postpartum health.
I suffered greatly after my first child was born with postpartum depression. After my second was born I didn’t want to go through it again, so I went out on a limb and started my journey with yoga.
The third-time mother kept up her yoga practice throughout her pregnancy and decided to continue after Maramaylee was born; but obviously being a mum is a full time job, so Carlee came up with this clever multi-tasking ploy that enables both her and her baby to stay healthy.
Carlee told us: ‘It’s not about breastfeeding, it’s not about yoga, it’s about not being able to pour from an empty cup, and it’s not just directed toward parents. We get so caught up trying to please everyone else we forget about ourselves, but if we each took the time to love ourselves more the world would feel it.’
We’re not usually a fan of sharing pictures of your dinner of Instagram – because no one cares about your quinoa salad – but this mum has managed to promote a healthy lifestyle, close maternal bonds and the move to normalise breastfeeding in this beautiful photo series.
A former emo kid who talks too much about 8Chan meme culture, the Kardashian Klan, and how her smartphone is probably killing her. Francesca is a Cardiff University Journalism Masters grad who has done words for BBC, ELLE, The Debrief, DAZED, an art magazine you’ve never heard of and a feminist zine which never went to print.