During a segment last week on the "breastfeeding selfies" on the U.K. talk show This Morning, journalist Angela Epstein called breastfeed selfie takers "attention-seeking."
"'It is an attention-seeking spectacle which uses children almost as a commodity, parading them around and saying, 'Isn't it great? I can breastfeed,'" Epstein said. "This whole brelfie cult smacks of naked exhibitionism."
The post sparked talk and controversy, but it wasn't until the practice was discussed on This Morning that it became such a widespread internet phenomenon.
The brelfie that coined the hashtag and began the international discussion of breastfeeding on social media was first posted by actress Alyssa Milano back in December.
"I got really sad about [the negative response]," Milano said on The Talk in December, "because who are we, that now we get upset as human beings if we see a woman feeding her baby?"