Breastfeeding is a natural way to feed a growing baby, so it must just be easy and normal for every woman, right?

Not quite.

Breastfeeding can be as varied as the women and babies doing it.

Olivia Brown's experience breastfeeding her second child changed her career and her life.

Olivia Brown has collected 100 photos and stories of women around Tasmania. ( ABC Radio Hobart: Carol Rääbus )

"I had a baby that wouldn't take a bottle and that affected a lot of things, like returning to work," she told Ryk Goddard on ABC Radio Hobart.

"I did try to go back to work, but he was 100 per cent dependent on me."

The pressure took a toll on Ms Brown's health.

"I was so exhausted when my little one was six weeks old, I actually went 100 per cent blind in one eye.

"I ended up in hospital, I had an MS scare, they thought I was having a brain clot, and all this full-on stuff happened that made me re-evaluate my whole life.

Rebecca's word to describe breastfeeding was "anxious", as her second child only wanted expressed milk in a bottle. ( Supplied: Olivia Brown )

"It lasted for six months, which was kind of scary for someone with a visual arts degree.

"I would look at my baby while I was breastfeeding and think how lucky I was that I could still see him."

Ms Brown's sight did return and she decided to quit her job and focus her time working as a photographer in her own business instead.

Alongside her paying jobs of wedding and engagement photography, she decided to work on a personal project to show and tell the stories of women's experiences feeding their babies.

Patience kept feeding her first son when she had her second. Her word to describe breastfeeding is "superhuman". ( Supplied: Olivia Brown )

"That was something I felt had to be shared.

"The first six to eight weeks, sometimes you can feel really isolated."

Ms Brown travelled Tasmania photographing women breastfeeding their children and collecting their stories to put together in a book.

She asked the women to give one word describing how they felt about breastfeeding.

Breastfeeding her prematurely born twins became very important for Jenna, both to help them and to bond later. ( Supplied: Olivia Brown )

"Ninety per cent of them had a different word. I found that really fascinating," she said.

"Words like 'powerful', 'connected', 'amazing', 'loyal', 'blessed', 'equipped', 'joyous'. 'Anxious' might have been one, but most of them were really positive."

Ms Brown is showing all 100 photographs in an exhibition this month to highlight how no-one's experience is wrong or right — it all comes down to doing what you can for you and the baby.

Kayla had trouble with mastitis with her first baby and said support at the mother/baby unit saved her sanity. ( Supplied: Olivia Brown )

"[Breastfeeding] probably doesn't come naturally for really anyone," she said.

"Especially in the first few weeks and even months, you do have to persevere and keep trying and you'll get there in the end.

"Sometimes we make decisions thinking we can control the outcome, but you can't.

"It is what it is and we shouldn't put so much pressure on ourselves."

The exhibition, Where Is My Village? Breastfeeding Portraits, opens at the Long Gallery in Salamanca on Friday and runs until March 20.

Ms Brown will have a photo booth in the exhibition between 11:00am and 12:00pm where mothers can share their stories and join the project.