I am a breast feeding mother. I don’t nurse on demand. I don’t nurse him to sleep. I am not a pacifier. I have chosen to feed my baby breast
milk. He uses it to satisfy his hunger
and to be nutritionally satisfied. I do
nurse in public on occasion, but when I do I try to find an out of the way
place and I cover up. But I believe every
woman should have the right to chose when and where and how she nurses her
child. And her choice should be received
without judgment.
That being said the time we spend together
nursing is important to both of us emotionally.
It is how we nurture each other.
It is how we connect to each other.
I love that he has to be returned to me to eat. He never gets taken too far. The question of when to wean has always been
in the back of my mind. It sounds more
like “how long can I nurse” than
“when do I get to stop.” I don’t want to
be weird, which of course is the worst way to make parenting decisions. I know we will nurse until he’s at least twelve
months old. After that I don’t have plans to stop.
So now my thoughts on the Time
magazine cover. The one that shows a mom
nursing her three year old. Jason came
home from work and asked me if I had seen it.
I hadn’t so I googled it. I
wanted so bad to like the picture. I was
hoping a sweet, loving moment, the kind of moment I share with Ty, had been
captured. I was hoping this mother and
her child would somehow be able to show what a good thing it is to nurse your
child. I was disappointed. The picture strikes me as oddly sexual. This mama and son look like they have no
connection. They seem to be averting
their eyes. I know she is still nursing
because she feels it is best for her child and I’m sure she wanted to show the
world what she believes is a better way.
I wonder if she is disappointed, too.
The article features several other pictures of mamas nursing older
children, but they don’t trigger the same uncomfortable reaction. And they didn’t make the cover. Hmmmm. Was that on purpose?
