Wait, Why Are We Now Sexualizing Lactation?

I was scrolling through Instagram the other day when I came across a video that made me scroll-stop. Leigh-Anne Pinnock, the former Little Mix singer who is currently pregnant with her third child, walked the runway at London Fashion Week. She looked stunning in a white Di Petsa Spring/Summer two-piece with her pregnant belly on display. But it wasn’t her bump that made me do a double take. It was the milk spraying from her breasts. Yes, you read that correctly.

Pinnock closed Di Petsa’s Spring 2027 show, titled Holy Milk, wearing a bra designed to simulate lactation. As she walked, streams of a milk-like liquid sprayed from her breasts onto the models surrounding her. According to the brand, the collection is an exploration of motherhood, femininity and transformation, and Pinnock later described the experience as one of the most empowering of her life. She explained that pregnancy is so often treated as something women should hide, and that she appreciated being given the opportunity to make her changing body the center of the story rather than conceal it.

It’s not my place to tell Pinnock whether the moment was empowering or ridiculous. After all, if she walked off that runway feeling strong, beautiful and more connected to her body, then I love that for her. However, as a mother of two, I couldn’t shake my own reaction: It made me uncomfortable. And the more I thought about why, the more I realized it wasn’t really about the spraying of milk. It was because our effort to stop hiding pregnant bodies seems to have morphed into an expectation that we sexualize them.

To be clear, I’m very happy we’ve moved on from the days when pregnancy meant disappearing underneath a giant tent dress. For generations, maternity fashion asked women to make their bumps as unobtrusive as possible. Then celebrities began pushing back against that idea. The pregnant body could be fashionable. And, yes, it could be sexy. Remember when Rihanna was pregnant in 2022, and she wore crop tops, low-rise pants, and a Dior dress over lingerie? Her stylist, Jahleel Weaver, said their approach was to make her bump the focal point rather than disguise it. Same with Sienna Miller, who, last year, wore a sheer Givenchy gown that exposed her belly. 

Obviously, a pregnant woman has every right to feel sexy and becoming someone’s mother doesn’t erase one’s sensuality. But these days, it seems like seeing the pregnant body isn’t enough. It’s almost as if we have to make it a spectacle. Earlier this year, a pregnant Daisy Lowe attended London Fashion Week in a completely sheer lace dress with only a bra and briefs underneath. And, after revealing her fourth pregnancy in September 2025, Cardi B wore a sheer black lace catsuit over a bra and underwear. Clearly the exposed pregnant belly has become a red-carpet trend of its own, but Pinnock’s runway appearance takes things one step further.

Breastfeeding is perhaps one of the most maternal things a body can do. It’s nourishment and an extremely intimate moment between a mother and child. But, it’s also messy, painful, frustrating, exhausting and VERY unsexy. Di Petsa took that bodily function and transformed it into a highly stylized fashion performance, complete with a barely-there bra, wet-look clothing and milk dramatically shooting through the air in apparent orgasmic delight. Yikes! 

For me, there has to be some space between those two extremes. Yes, a woman should be able to wear a naked dress while nine months pregnant without anyone clutching their pearls. She should also be able to show up in a muumuu and Birkenstocks without anyone deciding she’s given up. And she certainly shouldn’t have to prove that pregnancy hasn’t diminished her desirability.

Pinnock’s response to the hoopla resonates with me most: “My body is not something to be ashamed of because it is changing,” she wrote. “And it does not stop belonging to me because I am becoming a mother.”

She’s right. A pregnant woman’s body still belongs entirely to her and she gets to decide whether she wants to cover it, expose it, sexualize it, celebrate it. Or even shoot fake breast milk across a runway with it. I just hope that in our rush to liberate pregnant bodies from one set of expectations, we aren’t creating another.

Motherhood is already powerful. Why do we keep acting like we need to make it sexy to prove that?