Tonight one of my other passions is up for ridicule. Birth and breastfeeding. It's important. It's normal, and it's important that it be normal. But some of us in this culture think that normal birth without intervention is selfish. You surely remember being told or hearing "there's no medal for doing it without epidural!" As an aside, I submit that subjecting your body (and yes baby) to epidural or other intervention when it's not medically necessary is willfully introducing risk without abating any other risk already present during a normal birth. How's THAT for selfish? But I digress.
This week I got so see a pretty little picture of a mother nursing her two daughters. As art for art's sake it's a pretty image. The children are nurtured and peaceful in expression, the afternoon light kisses their hair and the billowing blooms of the rolling country meadow. Mom stands topless in a skirt at a fence rail (looks like she's standing in a cattle chute) while her cherubs balance on the fence and lean into their mother and the youngest nurses. Topless? Yeah, she walked into a field, took off her shirt, balanced her kids up on a rickety fence rail (one of them has to squat on the beam) and said, "yes, this is natural!" She can't possibly be comfortable. In the sense that no one breastfeeds in this position unless it's an on-demand situation. And this is clearly not an on-demand situation or else this woman walks around the ranch topless everyday. That is to say I would have zero criticism if she were simply wearing an opened shirt.
I submit you are the Flavor Flave of breastfeeding images. Out there? Yes. Thought provoking? Definitely. Lacking in seriousness and credibility? Absolutely. You are trying too hard for a cause that strives to make breastfeeding (anywhere where it can be seen) appear normal. This my dears is NOT normal. I'm a mom who breastfed. I'm from Texas cattle country. Trust me, no one does this.
