Officer breast-feeds China quake orphans

[siobhang]

According to the article, at point she was nursing 9 babies!!!

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JIANGYOU, China (CNN) -- A Chinese police officer is being hailed as a hero after taking it upon herself to breast-feed several infants who were separated from their mothers or orphaned by China's devastating earthquake.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapc...eed/index.html

[muppet729]

I think that is awesome. I especially like that she's being hailed as a hero instead of shunned as a wierdo. I could see if something like that happened here, people might react differently.

[plantmama]

How wonderful! Yes you wonder what would have happened if someone offered to nurse babies without milk (mama's or bottles) during Katrina. I feel like it may not have been so well received, but who knows?
Just a reminder of how useful and lifesaving nursing can be.

[miss_sonja]

That's a great story!

(the Katrina stories broke my heart...so many babies suffering because they weren't nursed...)

[attachedmamaof3]

What an amazing story. Truly. If I were one of those parents I would be so thankful.

[davmon]

It is a great story but at the end she mentioned that her own 6 mo baby was in another town with in-laws so I assumed she wasn't nursing him... .

[peachymomma]

DID you see the newspaper photo!!!??!! It was a picture of her breastfeeding! WITH BREAST SHOWING! I was so proud of the people that publised that paper! I wish someone here in the US had that much sense

[peachymomma]

Originally Posted by davmon

It is a great story but at the end she mentioned that her own 6 mo baby was in another town with in-laws so I assumed she wasn't nursing him... .

Yeah I thought it was sad too. I am assuming though that she will probably resume nursing him... I mean after all she seems like the type.

[Meiri]

I'm thinking she'll not have lost her milk from being separated from her own baby for a time.

[songbh]

Originally Posted by davmon

It is a great story but at the end she mentioned that her own 6 mo baby was in another town with in-laws so I assumed she wasn't nursing him... .

It's a massive disaster zone, and she's an on-duty police officer. It makes sense that it would be neither possible nor safe for her to have her baby with her full-time at that moment.

Yes, it is always sad when a nursling is separated from his mother. But let's keep this in perspective and consider the context -- tens of thousands dead, millions homeless. If her baby is warm, fed, and loved in Sichuan Province, he's way ahead of the game right now.

[peachymomma]

Originally Posted by songbh

It's a massive disaster zone, and she's an on-duty police officer. It makes sense that it would be neither possible nor safe for her to have her baby with her full-time at that moment.

Yes, it is always sad when a nursling is separated from his mother. But let's keep this in perspective and consider the context -- tens of thousands dead, millions homeless. If her baby is warm, fed, and loved in Sichuan Province, he's way ahead of the game right now.

Great points!

[MCatLvrMom2A&X]

There is probably a good possiblilty that someone was nursing the baby while she was away. I think it is more common to have wet nurses in china?

[uzra_hashmi@rediff]

Hats off to the officer. I was reminded that super cyclone in east Indiaseveral years ago had left similar orphan victims. They were taken care of by a group of lactating mothers until one by one all of them were adopted. Here the individual iniyiative by the cinese officer must be praised, especially as she has been attending to nine babies at a time. Great.
Uzra

[LittlePeanut]

Originally Posted by songbh

It's a massive disaster zone, and she's an on-duty police officer. It makes sense that it would be neither possible nor safe for her to have her baby with her full-time at that moment.

Yes, it is always sad when a nursling is separated from his mother. But let's keep this in perspective and consider the context -- tens of thousands dead, millions homeless. If her baby is warm, fed, and loved in Sichuan Province, he's way ahead of the game right now.

Exactly what I was going to say! *you said it way better*

LP

[songbh]

Originally Posted by MCatLvrMom2A&X

There is probably a good possiblilty that someone was nursing the baby while she was away. I think it is more common to have wet nurses in china?

Artificial baby milk is by far more common than wet-nursing in most of China nowadays. There has been some media coverage of a "resurgence" of wet-nursing in China, but it seems to be limited to only the very wealthy. The average baby is breastfed for only a short time and then fed artificial baby milk. As market reforms have opened China's economy to more foreign trade and investment, the artificial baby milk manufacturers have made huge inroads into the Chinese market. Artificial baby milk is EVERYWHERE, and few mothers who breastfeed do so for more than a few weeks or months. As with so many other things in China, there may be vast differences between urban and rural areas or between different regions.

Here is a news article from 2005 about the controversial re-introduction of commercial wet-nursing in one city in China.