Time Magazine’s controversial cover- a professional mom’s perspective

By now I suspect that many of you have seen the May edition of Time Magazine featuring Jamie Lynne Grumet breastfeeding her 3-year-old son. I love the conversation that has been sparked by this photo. Time Magazine knew what they were doing with this cover and particularly with the title of the article “Are you Mom Enough?”

It seems the initial face value question is whether breastfeeding a 3-year-old is appropriate in North America. What struck me more was the title of the article, as if we need MORE pressure on us to be Mom Enough, whatever that means!

Trying to be as open as possible to the article and ensuing conversations, I decided to do a bit more research into what I thought the underlying currents of this were. What I discovered was that it is WAY more than can be covered in this blog! Here are a couple of things that stuck out to me.

- According to the recently released State of the World’s Mothers report by Save the Children, the US ranks last among 36 industrialized nations in support of breastfeeding, with only 35 percent of moms exclusively nursing when their children are three months old.

- Many of developing countries in the world have Moms who breastfeed their children to age 2 and beyond. The percentage of women in Nepal who do is 93%.

There is a very stark contrast between the US and Nepal. It seems to me it comes down to the situational factors – women in the US go back to work for the most part somewhere between 6 weeks and 3 months postpartum. Breastfeeding is still an option though requires a high level of dedication and logistical management. I don’t know the ins and outs of a mom’s life in Nepal though am banking that it is quite different than here.

Bottom line for me it comes down to this: Moms have the right to choose what is best for them, from Canada to the US to Nepal. You are Mom enough the day your child is born!