Milk Tales
A Journey of Motherhood and Breastfeeding
Are you breastfeeding your new baby and feeling in pain, broken, and misunderstood?
I see you. And I’m so sorry.
Thirteen years ago, I was there too. Sitting in the dark, thinking I wasn’t a good enough mum.
Crying through feeds because the pain was too sharp, and the guilt was even sharper. I didn’t know what was wrong or why it felt so hard.
If you're in that place right now, please hear this: you are not alone, and you are not broken.
You are simply trying to breastfeed in a society that doesn’t prioritise it.
A world where mothers are too often unsupported, unheard, and made to feel like they're failing, when in truth, it’s the system that’s failing you.
What Is Milk Tales?
Milk Tales is a photography and storytelling book about the unseen side of breastfeeding, the part that lives behind closed doors, beneath whispered questions, and in the hearts of mothers who were never told how hard it could be.
This book brings together portraits and personal stories from over 20 mothers. Some breastfed for years. Others struggled and looked desperately for help. Some grieved. Some healed. All of them were honest.
Through their voices and faces, Milk Tales gives shape to the tough, powerful, emotional reality of breastfeeding. The guilt, the pride. The tears, the closeness. The self-doubt, and the strength that rises quietly beneath it all.
Whether you’re in the middle of it, holding the memory of it, or supporting someone else through it, this book is for you.
What’s Inside the Book
Inside Milk Tales, you’ll find more than just stories, you’ll find reflections of yourself, your friends, your sister, your clients, or the mother you once were.
✦ Over 20 real stories of breastfeeding, from first latch to last feed, from determination to surrender
✦ Black and white portraits that capture the quiet power and vulnerability of each mother
✦ Honest words about pain, guilt, connection, identity, and the journey of becoming
✦ Creative images woven with symbolism from mirrors to plasters, milk drops to shadows
✦ QR codes throughout the book linking to behind-the-scenes videos and blog posts
You can read this book from start to finish or open it on a random page and find truth waiting for you there.
Milk Tales isn’t a guide. It’s not a how-to.
It’s a space to feel seen. To pause. To remember you’re not alone.
Why I Created This Project
Milk Tales began with my own story, 13 years ago, as a new mum in pain, convinced I was failing.
I didn’t expect breastfeeding to be easy. But I didn’t expect it to break me either.
I cried through feeds, felt guilt I couldn’t name, and longed for someone, anyone, to say, “Me too.”
That moment never came.
So I created this book. For my old self and for self-healing. For other women.
What started with one photo became a wave of stories, each one adding truth, tenderness, and strength to a narrative that’s so often left in the dark.
These mothers didn’t just sit for a portrait, they opened their hearts. They trusted me with their pain, their pride, their power.
This book is our shared space. A soft place to land. A record of what’s real.
Milk Tales will be available to order soon in paperback and ebook.
Printed in the UK. Ships worldwide.
Valentina Rebeschini is an Italian-born, London-based photographer, mentor, and mother.
For over 15 years, she has captured motherhood through a simple, heartfelt lens, specialising in maternity, newborn, and women's portraiture.
Milk Tales is her first book and most personal project to date.
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Some of these women, if they existed today, would have been encouraged to fix what made them unique.
To smooth it.
To reduce it.
To hide it.
And yet those very features became their very signature. The reason we remember them. The reason they felt real.
I think about this often. How many women today are holding back from being seen, because of something someone once said. A feature. A line. A detail they were taught to criticise.
Photography, for me, has never been about perfection.
It is about truth.
It is about presence.
It is about helping you see that what you have been taught to question is often exactly what makes you beautiful.
You don’t need to wait until you feel ready.
You don’t need to change a thing.
You are already worth being captured.
This April, I am offering one complimentary portrait session in my Twickenham studio, because I want more women seeing their own beauty.
If this speaks to you, comment SEEN below.
It starts with a moment of preparation, a breath, a pause before everything changes.
And then, without realising it, that moment becomes something lasting.
Not just a photo, but a piece of your story to live with every day.
I don’t create images to sit in a folder.
�I create them to be seen, held, and remembered.
�Because your memories deserve space in your home, and in your everyday life.
If you’ve been thinking about capturing this chapter of your life, I’d love to create something meaningful with you. 🤍
I often start with an idea.
A light, a set, a feeling I imagine could work.
But the real session begins when you walk in.
When we connect, when I listen, when I understand what you need, not just what I planned.
That is where everything shifts.
A portrait session isn’t about fitting you into my vision.
It’s about creating something together, something that feels true to you.
Would you prefer to be guided, or to co-create your session?
This photo is from last year.
We look different now. Older, wiser, with shorter hair. We’re in different countries. Life has thrown its complications at us, the kind that don’t get shared on social media. And a photo like this is not possible right now.
So I’m holding on to this one until better days come.
I remember how hard it was to take it. So many bad ones, so much frustration. Me going back and forth from the camera. And then this. The last one. The real one. Laughter out of frustration. Boom.
This Mother’s Day, I’m not thinking about breakfast in bed or bouquets. That’s for the Instagram show.
I’m thinking about the women who wish they still had their mum. The ones who wish they were one. The ones holding everything together while the world posts its perfect mum life, and we all know it’s not real. The ones who are tired, exhausted, overwhelmed, desperate for a break, but with a heart full of love, hanging onto every little moment of joy.
You don’t have to have the perfect day to be a good mother.
Today is about acknowledging us, exactly as we are.
Happy Mother’s Day 🤍
Six years ago, I photographed Louise feeding her baby during her newborn session.
Last Friday, I went to something special.
The live recording of @no_parental_guidance , the podcast by @mamastillgotit_ and @hannaheastcomedy. What an absolutely amazing morning, thanks again for having me there!
And on that occasion we swapped books.
In her copy of Milk Tales, I wrote: “This book was born from the real voices of mothers. In many ways, you give space to those voices every day.” ( or something on line as I don’t rememebr the exact words now - hello I don’t remember what I ate for lunch, let the exact words I used a week ago!😅)
Because that’s what she does.
Milk Tales is a collection of breastfeeding stories and photographs, born from my own experience and built from the honest voices of other mothers. Through her podcast with Hannah East, Louise has been doing the same work: creating space for the messy, funny, hard, beautiful truth of parenting.
It’s one of those full-circle moments. The newborn I photographed six years ago. The mother who keeps showing up, keeps speaking honestly, keeps making other parents feel less alone.
If you haven’t listened to @no_parental_guidance go and find it. Real conversations about the parts of parenting no one warns you about, with lots of humour.
If you’ve been curious about Milk Tales, it’s available on Amazon. And if you haven’t read Louise’s book yet, find it there too you will laugh out loud!
March: the month we celebrate women. Twice.
But instead of just posting about it, I’m doing something.
I’m opening up five complimentary portrait sessions in my studio this March. Small, intimate experiences for women over 40.
For women who’ve been thinking about doing this but haven’t taken the step.
For women who want to see themselves differently.
There’s no catch. Just the experience of pausing, of being witnessed, of seeing yourself through a lens that isn’t your phone screen.
If you fall in love with an image and want to print it, you can. Prints start at £100. Because you deserve to see yourself properly, not on a small screen.
If nothing calls to you, the experience is yours to keep.
To apply: Comment and tell me in one sentence what it would mean to you to see yourself differently.
5 spaces. Late March. If this stirs something in you, don’t wait.
Based in Richmond, I work with families across London to capture life’s most meaningful milestones through portrait photography.