This is one breastfeeding photo that WILL shock you.

This breastfeeding photo is designed to shock – and for once it’s a good thing.

Where did you eat your dinner last night?

At the table with your kids? On a stool at the kitchen bench? Did you sneakily graze at it balanced on your knee while watching TV or did you park yourself down on the toilet and dig in?

Shocked? Why? Don’t you eat your dinner while propped up on the loo?  And if not, why not?

In all honesty it’s a fairly confronting thought, isn’t it? But that is just the image from an Israeli mother of two that has gone viral over the past week.

Tamar Shugert entered her photo in an online competition with the challenge “Make a Statement” – and she certainly did.

She juxtaposed a photo of a nursing mother (Shugert herself) sitting on the toilet while breastfeeding her baby, with a man (who happened to be Shugert’s husband) tucking into a bowl of pasta in the cubicle next to her.

Her caption: “If you are not willing to eat your lunch in the bathroom, then don’t expect me to feed my kid there”.

The startling portrayal quickly went viral with thousands of likes – and was instantaneously picked up by media across the world.

Shugert told USA Today that her two sons are older now – and the image was actually just a teddy bear under a feeding cloth.

She says that she herself was never forced to use a bathroom when nursing her sons, but that she had heard stories from friends who had.

In Israel, she explained to The Huffington Post, many women don’t nurse their babies uncovered outside the home.

"It's not so much about the baby," she said. "The baby really doesn't care, but I think that women who are going out of their way to give their baby the best nutrition that they possibly can should not have to feel inconvenienced in doing so."

Ironically many of the comments on the Facebook post showed the ignorance there still is about this matter with one man writing: "I don't see anything the woman did wrong, at least she went to the bathroom for privacy, but the man eating in the bathroom is gross how many germs are in the bathroom."

Oh, gosh you just DON'T get it do you?

It isn’t the first time such an image has stirred up passions in the bid to normalise breastfeeding.

Last year a group of university students in Texas created a campaign designed to drum up support for a proposed bill which would ensure breastfeeding mothers had the right to feed their babies in public.

“Would you eat here?” the ads read. “By law, breastfeeding mothers are not protected from harassment and refusal of service in public, often forcing them to feed in secluded spaces such as public bathrooms.”

I think I was one of the lucky ones (or perhaps I didn’t glance up enough from gazing at my baby to see the disapproving faces) but there was only one time in my over five years worth of breastfeeding when I was “shamed".

It was while I was on holidays in the UK and I was feeding my six-month old son in a lounge area of a hotel. A white gloved concierge asked me if I would be “more comfortable with a wrap to help cover up”.

I assured the 20-something gentleman I was perfectly comfortable the way I was, as long as my son didn’t bite my nipple. (Well I didn’t add the last bit, but I wished later I had.)

But time and time again you hear stories of women being shamed for feeding their babies in public.

Imagine the outrage if they didn’t feed them? Not to mention the screams of the hungry infant!

Photos like Shugert’s are important to share to help combat outdated attitudes towards breastfeeding. Shugert herself is expecting baby number three – and it’s for women much like herself that she is proud of the success of her work.

 Have you ever been shamed for breastfeeding in public?

SCROLL THROUGH the gallery for more pictures of breastfeeding celebrities...

Want more? Try:

A mother has been shamed for breastfeeding in her own home.

Breastfeeding in public is a right and this Aussie mum fought for it.