When I saw the Time Magazine cover for the first time I was immediately intrigued.  The mother of three boys all of whom I nursed for some amount of time, it was finally time I see someone nurse their child in public (even if that public place is a news stand on a magazine).  I nursed two of my sons for a short period of time, my middle child was over 16 months old when he started to wean.  I won’t lie and say it wasn’t getting weird, because it was.  When you have your walking toddler propping himself onto things to get to your boob, trying to lift your shirt up or down and squeezing your boob when their hungry, yeah totally awkward.  While I couldn’t ever see myself nursing my own three year old, I think it normalcy of it  should be.

I left the hospital after having my children, with the notion that I had to nurse and how wrong it was not too.  I mean seriously the nurse told me not to give my child a pacifier, just to keep breast feeding.  Our pediatrician pushed breast feeding on me too, those days and nights when my son would treat me like a pacifier where dreadful, but I kept pushing on.   After the initial couple of weeks I could nurse without even realizing it was happening.  I could stick my newborn baby in a sling just perfectly while he nursed.

When it was time to venture out and proudly show off my new bundle of joy.   I was left with a baby who still needed to eat.  I would find a corner, a room, we even would head back to the car for nursing sessions.  But it all wasn’t enough to shield me from the public eye even with a cover over me.  I can’t tell you how many times I got those awkward stares or kids would look to see what the heck I was doing.  I almost felt shame as if I was doing something wrong.  Breast feeding saved me money and bonded me with my middle son in a different way than his brothers.

What do you think about the controversial cover?