Crunchy Moms Opinion – Time Cover Breastfeeding

Breast feeding seems to be hitting the mainstream media as if it was almost normal.

Good thing it is normal!

First there was the uproar over the oreo “basic instinct” print AD.

I think it is adorable personally.

Kraft’s AD said that this was supposed to be a Korean one time use AD and not for public consumers. Yet Fox Nation has said the ad is a “shocker” but that is nothing compared to what writer Kavita Varma-White said: “kind of… icky… about the way this ad blatantly sexualizes breast-feeding” among other things. 

How did something so normal become such a hot topic? How is a baby eating the natural way something sexual? How can anyone look at a baby and think something sexual? Wouldn’t that be some kind of icky mental illness? Maybe our society as a whole is mentally ill?

Jumping into the “controversial” world of breastfeeding and more TIME magazine went on to publish this cover of a mother breastfeeding her 3 year old.

The article promises to explain why Attachment Parenting Drives some mothers to extremes.

Is breastfeeding a 3 year old extreme? Maybe one could think that given the photo. The photo is more an art piece in my mind, not something one would normally see in a breastfeeding home from my experience, but I could be wrong.

There are many that where not happy about the Oreo photo, there are many more it seems though not happy about the TIME cover though but not just by those who see breastfeeding as sexual but by many in the Attachment Parenting community. The community I find myself in most often.

Did the mother in this photo know that her and her son where going to be used in this manner?

One wise mother friend of mine pointed out that the only one that wins in this Mommy war are the advertisers. Certainly TIME is getting a lot of attention.

I can not disagree with my friend on this. I can not argue with those friends who dislike the photo.

For me though, take away the words, and I think it is a powerful piece that the mainstream needs to see. We need more breastfeeding photos in our community, in our media, it needs to be normal, and it needs to be talked about. Maybe though not in the way TIME is doing.

I am an Attachment Parenting mother. I am a little crunchy. Not all crunchy though as I could not breastfeed my children till they self weaned as I would have liked. I have a medical condition that makes it near impossible to breast feed around 10 months old. I have to supplement with donated breast milk or formula by 6 months or my babies fail to thrive. With 4 children I have tried everything available from top of the line pumps, herbs, Lactation consultants, medications, and medications not approved for lactation induction in this country even. I am a mother who failed to breastfeed my babies for as long as they needed. No one makes me feel badly about this though, no one that knows me, and no one that reads about my journey in this and even if they tried…. there is a quote I think that matters:

So lets not let TIME or anyone else make use feel inferior for not breastfeeding till 3 or any other arbitrary marker. We need to support one another while all trying to do our best. By all means we should advocate for education in parenting and nursing and Breast is Best should not be shoved away because it makes some feel badly. I think we only feel badly by this when either we feel guilty deep down, or we care deeply about what someone saying it thinks of us. I don’t have guilt about not breastfeeding till 3 anymore, I know the truth, and I know I tried all I could. I am at peace with it.