Gisele Bündchen is celebrating breastfeeding!
On Friday, the model, 39, opened up in a candid Instagram post about her “special” experience nursing her two children, whom she shares with husband Tom Brady, in honor of Breastfeeding Awareness Month.
Though Bündchen admitted that breastfeeding comes with its challenges, the mother of two said she “would not change that experience for anything in this world,” and went on to praise all mothers.
Bündchen also shared a throwback photo with her daughter Vivian Lake, now 6, while the pair shared an intimate moment breastfeeding.
“One of the most special moments I’ve shared with my kids was while breastfeeding,” she captioned the sweet mother-daughter shot. “That special look you get, that feeling of connection is unlike anything I have ever experienced.”
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“I love how #breastfeedingawarenessmonth shines a light on the importance of breastfeeding,” she continued. “Yes, in the beginning, it can be difficult, it can hurt (the cracks, bleeding, engorgement), but no matter how challenging, I would not change that experience for anything in this world.”
“I feel blessed that I was able to nourish them in this way,” the star added. “Congratulations to all mamas out there for the effort that we put in, the ones who breastfeed, and those who could not and have had heartbreaking moments trying to.”
“I celebrate all of you! 💕” she proudly finished.
Bündchen has previously praised the power of breastfeeding while speaking to PEOPLE last October.
“My kids never got sick when I was breastfeeding,” the supermodel said, explaining that she found breast milk to be “a magical thing.”
“If they had something in their eyes, I’d put milk in their eyes. Before their flight, I would get a dropper and put milk up their nose … to [ward off] the bacteria on the plane,” she recalled.
As her breast milk kept coming in handy, Bündchen shared that when it came time for her to stop nursing, she actually kept a stockpile of frozen milk to use for various home remedies.
“My pediatrician said, ‘If you could bottle [it], this would be like the perfect medicine for everything,’ so I actually had a bunch frozen after I stopped breastfeeding,” she continued, adding that she would even use the breast milk in her children’s cereal.
“I mean, I was one crazy person,” the mother of two admitted, laughing, “but I felt like it was such a gift that I had.”
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Like Friday’s post, the supermodel went on to call breastfeeding “the most wonderful experience of my life,” but admitted that pumping “was very hard.”
“I actually had a hard time,” Bündchen remarked, explaining that the process was difficult for her sisters as well.
“[One of my sisters] couldn’t produce enough milk and so it was very challenging for two of them to breastfeed and I was so grateful that I was able to,” she told PEOPLE. “I felt like it was a big gift that I was given to be able to do that.”
Bündchen revealed to people that to breastfeeding her daughter and son Benjamin Rein, now 9, did come at a cost.
The supermodel said that after years of being known for her body, her self-esteem took a hit when she realized her breasts were smaller than before — and slightly uneven — after breastfeeding.
“I was always praised for my body and I felt like people had expectations from me that I couldn’t deliver [on],” she explained. “I felt very vulnerable because I can work out, I can eat healthy, but I can’t change the fact that both of my kids enjoyed the left boob more than the right. All I wanted was for them to be even and for people to stop commenting on it.”
In order to achieve symmetry, Bündchen went under the knife in 2015 for a breast augmentation — a revelation she shared in her memoir, Lessons: My Path To a Meaningful Life.
But while she immediately regretted the decision, Bündchen said her New England Patriots quarterback husband was a constant source of support.
“He just said, ‘I love you no matter what’ and that I looked beautiful,” she said of Brady, 42. “This was definitely another lesson: What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. But I wish I would have learned that a different way.”
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