Inspiring photo of mum breastfeeding in her graduation gown goes viral

A photo of an Australian woman breastfeeding her child on her graduation day has gone viral, with the mum-of-two describing the world’s reaction as ‘crazy.’

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by Ellie Hooper |
Published on

Jacci Sharkey was photographed by her sister-in-law as she breastfed her son Alek, who was six-weeks-old at the time, at her graduation ceremony in October.

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The image of the 24-year-old was posted to the University of the Sunshine Coast’s Facebook on Monday afternoon, and immediately started receiving dozens of likes and shares.

Ms Sharkey said the social media response had shocked her.

Post by University of the Sunshine Coast.

‘I never expected it to go crazy. I thought I’d be really happy if it got 100 likes and then it’s just gone out of control,’ she said.

‘It was really heart warming…you do come across your keyboard warriors but it’s just nice to see the positive outweigh the negative.’

Jacci studied human resource management, and during her degree was supported by the university while she also had 2 babies.

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Explaining the photo, Jacci said: ‘It wasn’t a statement [on breastfeeding] or anything like that. I would have sent the same picture to the uni had he [Alek] had a bottle or a sandwich…it was just the fact that I’m a mum.’

‘You don’t have to give up the career to have kids and you don’t have to give up kids to have the career…you can have it all.’

Jacci’s two children, Ari, 20 months, and newborn Alek, were born during her three and a half years at university.

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