Why This Woman Posted a Photo of Herself Breastfeeding Her 3-Year-Old Son on Facebook

With the growing movement to normalize breastfeeding, it's become quite the trend to post nursing selfies on social media, but when your newborn baby gets to a certain age, those snaps tend to stop popping up.

But for photographer Jade Beall, who is still practicing "extended breastfeeding" with her 3-and-a-half-year-old son, she doesn't see why those images can't continue.

"I admit that I never breastfeed my son in public anymore," she wrote in a caption of a bold self-portrait of herself breastfeeding her preschool-aged child on Facebook. "I feel like somehow I would be committing a criminal act when all I am doing is providing comfort and nourishment for my son. I see that with my discomfort in breastfeeding my son in public these days that there is a whole new way for me to promote and support feminism."

Beall — known for her work in photographing real women's postbaby bodies — posted the image and shared a few other angles in an attempt to create a dialogue.

"If this offends you, ask me a question rather than call me names," she implored. "Let's learn from one another. Let's be fee from fear of our differences and let's be filled with curiosity and compassion!"

And offend some it has. Although it's garnered nearly 10,000 "likes" on Facebook, commenters call it "horrifying," "selfish," and "lazy." Some even suggest she be reported to authorities for "a child sex crime."

Still, Beall stands by her image and quells most of the naysayers' negativity with honesty. She explained that "absolutey (sp) nothing soothes him better" and that she had tried "to wean him multiple times and I have at last surrendered to the flow of my relationship with my son."

And for those who were concerned full-term breastfeeding could lead to mental issues, she has a pretty impressive response: "My mother breastfed me until I was five, and I would have been proud of her to share her rad commitment to me had there been social media back in the '80s, and I grew up to be a pretty amazing woman and feminist that loves my parent."