The breastfeeding mother who posed for Time magazine’s controversial attachment parenting cover has hit out at the publication’s portrayal of her.
Jamie Lynne Grumet, 26, was photographed standing with her hand on her hip while her three-and-a-half-year-old son Aram stood on a stool to suckle from her breast.
Related: I breastfed my son until he was three
The confronting image was accompanied with the headline ‘Are you mom enough?’.
The cover was an instant hit, making headlines around the world, but Grumet was horrified and has now spoken out, criticising the publication and its portrayal of her.
Grumet — a mother of two from Los Angeles — says the now-famous cover shot was never meant to be published, claiming it was an “outtake” she specifically requested was not used.
“I definitely don’t agree with the cover, and I don’t agree with the article,” Grumet told US ABC News.
“My intentions were to help relieve the stigma attached to breast feeding past infancy, but the photo I saw wasn’t the one that we were trying to pose for. It made me really, really sad.”
Grumet has now posed for another cover — the current issue of Pathways to Family Wellness magazine — to display what she was hoping the Time issue would capture.
The image shows Grumet seated and breastfeeding Aram, who is now four, while her husband Brian and adopted son Samuel look on adoringly.
Grumet — who was breastfed by her own mother until she was six — is an advocate of attachment parenting, which espouses breastfeeding until the age of five, constant skin-on-skin contact and sleeping in the same bed as a child for as long as possible.
The parenting method is extremely controversial, and Grumet says she is constantly criticised but doesn’t care because she believes she is doing what’s best for her children.
“There are people who tell me they’re going to call social services on me or that it’s child molestation,” she wrote on her blog. “I really don’t think I can reason with those people.
Related: Formula feeding ‘like AIDS’, expectant mothers told
“There seems to be a war going on between conventional parenting and attachment parenting. That’s what I want to avoid. I want everyone to be encouraging. We’re not opposing teams.
“We all need to be encouraging to each other and I don’t think we’re doing a very good job at that.”
Your say: How long did you breastfeed for? Would you consider breastfeeding a child until they were five?
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