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Photo of Breastfeeding Military Moms Goes Viral

A photograph depicting 10 breastfeeding military moms in uniform from Fort Bliss, Texas, has gone viral. 

"Today I believe we made history. To my knowledge a group photo to show support of active duty military mommies nursing their little's has never been done. It is so nice to see support for this here at Fort Bliss," photographer Tara Ruby wrote on Facebook. 

The El Paso, Texas, photographer says she took the photo for the new Butterfly Room at Fort Bliss. The Butterfly Room was created for active soldiers as a private place to go to pump breast milk on base. Ruby, who specializes in photographing newborns and is a former member of the military herself, thought it would be nice to decorate the room with photos of newborns and nursing moms.  

"This (breastfeeding) definitely has been in the background. It’s absolutely amazing that change is happening," Ruby told NBC Owned Stations.

With the permission of Fort Bliss, Ruby says she invited active soldiers to meet on Sept. 10 for the photo shoot. She thought one or two may show up, but instead 10 nursing moms came. 

The photo was posted that evening to Facebook and it disappeared from her timeline, Ruby says. She posted it again the next day and by Monday morning it garnered more than 11,000 likes. She says the response has been overwhelmingly positive and she expects that in addition to the Butterfly Room, the photo will hang at Walter Reed Medical Center.

"This is a beautiful way to show how much women give of themselves to country and family," Megan Wesley commented on Facebook. 

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I posted this on here last night at 11:59pm. It has since disappeared from my feed and my wall. So we are posting this...

Posted by Tara Ruby Photography on Friday, September 11, 2015
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