Mom Pole Dances While Breastfeeding Toddler in Striking Photo
The mother whose pole-dancing videos have gone viral — showing her spinning aloft while six months pregnant and later swiveling with her 2-year-old daughter in a sling on her back — is trending yet again, with new footage of her dancing on her pole while breastfeeding.
STORY: Mom Who Pole Dances Wearing Her Baby Speaks Out
“If I always stopped what I wanted to do to nurse Shannon, I would never get anything done; especially if it is taking the time to achieve fitness goals and do things that pour into me, for my rejuvenation, for my balance,” self-defined “badass breastfeeding, baby-wearing, attachment parenting, pole dancing, yogi mama” Ashley Wright told the Huffington Post on Tuesday about the video that has raked in 2.8 million views on Facebook since Jan. 10. “When [Shannon] wants to dance with me, I always attempt to place her on my back as it allows me to do more moves than if she is on my front or side,” the single mom added of her girl, now 3. “Yet 98 percent of the time, the reason why she is on me is because she wants to nurse and would rather not wait. And the thing is, I would rather not stop what I am doing to nurse her.”
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Wright, 30, hashtagged the video #ifbuddhawasapoledacingbabywearingbreastfeedinggoddess and #normalisebreastfeeding.
Photo: Jordon Kelly/Instagram/mswrightsway
“I am an attachment parent — I am breastfeeding … we co-sleep, and I wear her in a sling,” the stay-at-home blogger and activist from the San Fernando Valley in California told Yahoo Parenting in March 2015, when Wright’s choreographed dance with Shannon to “The Circle of Life” took off on YouTube.
The labels other people have used for her after watching the duo pole dance can be disparaging, though. “I’ve been called names like ‘stripper’ and ‘bad parent,’” Wright continued to Yahoo Parenting. “And while I understand, remarks like these are sometimes from people who were taught to shame their bodies. People are mostly supportive, though, and say that I’m teaching my daughter how to love herself unconditionally.”
Photo: Instagram/mswrightsway
Among the more than 3,800 comments on her latest video, Wright has supporters and critics alike. Not that she pays either any mind. “I can’t imagine still continuing to live life limited by everyone else’s comfort levels and shadowed thoughts; hell even by my past fears and barriers,” the mother wrote alongside a photo of her posing upside down on a ring set with her daughter in a carrier on Instagram. “Life didn’t stop for me because I had a child… It got better. I have the best doubles partner in the world!“
(Top photo: Instagram/mswrightsway)
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