Did Time Magazine Go Too Far With Breastfeeding Cover?
BOSTON (CBS) - Time magazine's latest cover has stirred up controversy before it even hit newsstands. It shows a picture of a California mom breastfeeding her three-year-old boy. It's part of a story about "attachment parenting," a child rearing philosophy that advocates breastfeeding toddlers, sleeping with children, and toting them in slings.
"It seems a bit extreme," says Sara Grabelle, on the subject of extreme parenting.
"I think it's inappropriate," adds Pat Glucksman.
But when Beverly mom Hannah Fraley saw Time's new cover, she had a different reaction. "Good for her. Finally it's getting out there that breastfeeding is a normal, natural process." Fraley is a perinatal nurse and lactation consultant who breastfed her own son until he was five-years-old.
Breastfeeding advocates say it can only help. "It's not a sexualized practice, which I think people are misinterpreting," says Marsha Walker, of the National Alliance for Breastfeeding Advocacy. "When a baby is born, their brain is not fully developed, and only human milk has certain components that grow that brain."
One thing all sides seem to agree on, the edgy magazine cover was a smart marketing move by Time magazine. Like it or not, it has people talking.
