One thing I can say though is that I can distinctly remember women breastfeeding infants while protected by shawls or similar discreetly placed cloths.

Maybe that is the difference and perhaps women need to be a little discreet.

If I had my way such ‘modesty’ would not be required at all because children and adolescents in particular would benefit from seeing breastfeeding as a normal part of life.

It is not just the wowsers who make women feel uncomfortable about breast feeding, it is the feminists as well. Many feminists have very weird spins on sex and family and ensure that they inflict their views on everybody. We should rejoice in our femininity and in the roles that inherent to that. Having and raising children and being family builders are our highest achievements (and greatest sources of bliss and contentment), yet there are those who would make us feel uncomfortable about it.

I think that society was really getting somewhere, especially along the path to freedom and mutual respect in the seventies, but some zealots have really screwed it up for their own selfish agendas.

I also breastfed my child anywhere - on the tram, in restaurants, at markets. Now whenever I see a Mum breastfeeding I tell her how fabulous it is and that she’s doing the world a favour.

La leche league in the USA is like our Nursing Mothers (now the very corporate Australian Breastfeeding Association). They have a seriously uphill battle on their hands.

I cannot understand the furore surrounding breastfeeding and never have. I remember when Kate Langbroek fed her son on The Panel it actually made CNN, whereas I couldn’t see the issue. Similarly, the picture in question is beautiful - a child looking adoringly at its mother.

Sadly, the reaction is indicative of the tastes of middle America. Puritane and small-minded, unfortunately.

As I say, it’s natural!

Mind you, what about the absurd uproar when poor Kirsty Marshall tried this in Parliament, the people’s house??