Time Magazine’s Breastfeeding Mother Cover Creates Controversy

The Time Magazine cover for the May 21, 2012 issue is drawing a great deal of attention and creating a lot of controversy. Referred to simply as the Time Magazine Breastfeeding Cover by many, the image on the cover of the issue, photographed by Martin Schoeller, is that of a 26 year old mother breastfeeding her 3 year old boy – who is standing on a chair.

The mother in the cover picture for Time is Jamie Lynne Grumet featured in a story about what is referred to as “attachment parenting.” Grumet is a mother from the Los Angeles area who reportedly subscribes to parenting approach.

The story is that of Time Magazine staff writer Kate Pickert. According to the article, Attachment Parenting has been on the rise over the last two decades, since the publication of The Baby Book by Dr. Bill Sears and his wife, Martha, in 1992. From the book, the 3 primary tenets of the approach are extended breast-feeding, co-sleeping and “baby wearing,” which refers to the use keeping babies attached to the mother with baby slings.

While attachment parenting has been controversial for some time, and continues to raise questions with this recent article, much of the controversy ablaze on the internet relates, not to the content of the article, as much as the image on the cover of the magazine.

While an image of a mother holding and nursing a small infant would not stir much debate, a mother standing with her 3 year old little boy attached to her breast by mouth is another story. So much buzz is currently flying around the internet as the Time Cover goes viral, that the phrases “time magazine cover” and “time breastfeeding” are the #1 and #2 search on Google with a lot of volume.

Leave a comment and tell us what you think about the image and about the attachment parenting approach.