Nicole Trunfio has been photographed breastfeeding her son for the cover of Elle.

The 29-year-old beauty can be seen breastfeeding her adorable son Zion on the exclusive subscriber's cover of the June issue of Elle Australia and editor-in-chief Justine Cullen has revealed it was a spur of the moment decision.

She explained: ''This wasn't a contrived situation: Zion needed a feed, Nicole gave it to him, and when we saw how beautiful they looked we simply moved onto the set. It was a completely natural moment that resulted in a powerful picture.''

Nicole - who has modelled for designers including Chanel and Christian Dior and featured in the magazines Harper's Bazaar and British Vogue - posted the cover on her Instagram account and confessed she hopes the photo will make people understand how natural and ''beautiful'' breastfeeding is.

She wrote: ''There is nothing more powerful and beautiful that motherhood. The last thing I want to do is be controversial, so please take this for what it is, let us #normalizebreastfeeding there is nothing worse than a mother that is judged for feeding her hungry child in public.''

She added: ''#weareonlyhuman I'm so proud of this cover and for what it stands for. I obviously don't look like this while I am breastfeeding but this stands for all women out there, whether you breastfeed or not, we gave birth, we are women, we are mothers. Thank you to ELLE for being so bold and making such an encouraging, positive and healthy statement womenunite (sic).''

The brunette beauty - who is engaged to Zion's father, Grammy-winner Gary Clark Jr. - also revealed she was filled with tears of joy when she first saw the finished product.

She told the magazine: ''When I saw the [subscriber] cover of me breastfeeding, which was unplanned and just natural, I teared up and thought, 'Wow this is such a special moment where my words have collided.''