Since ABC's "Nightline" aired a story last week about Salma Hayek's goodwill trip to Sierra Leone, there has been a world-wide outpouring of reaction. Newspapers from Europe to Australia have made headlines out of a portion of the story in which Hayek breastfeeds another woman's newborn son on camera.

Star actress breastfeeds infant whose mother has no milk.The clip of Hayek nursing a very hungry baby boy (ironically born on the same day as her own daughter) has surfaced on YouTube as well as on dozens of other web sites, drawing thousands of comments.

The actress and producer was told by doctors in Sierra Leone that many mothers stop breastfeeding their infants within the first few months after birth because of pressure from their husbands. Tradition has it, in some areas, that it is not acceptable to have sexual relations with breast feeding women.

Sierra Leone has the highest infant mortality rate in the world, in part fueled by malnutrition. Physicians there told Hayek they would like to see mothers breastfeed for a full two years but that stigma too often gets in the way.


Salma Hayek on Breastfeeding
Hayek said her decision to breastfeed another woman's child was an attempt to diminish the stigma placed on women for breast feeding. At the time she was still breastfeeding her 1-year-old daughter.

She told "Nightline" co-anchor Cynthia McFadden that she thought her daughter wouldn't mind sharing her milk. "Am I being disloyal to my child by giving her milk away?" Hayek said. "I actually think my baby would be very proud to share her milk. And when she grows up I'm going to make sure she continues to be a generous, caring person."

Hayek told McFadden that that the idea of helping a child in this way had a long tradition in her family. She related a story about her great-grandmother many years ago in Mexico saving the starving baby of a stranger by breastfeeding the child.


I breastfed my son and I loved it. I mean if I were put in the situation where there were hungry babies around me I am sure I would have done the same thing. We have to remember god gave us our tetas for a reason. What do you think about all of this?

Breast is best, of course. And in countries where they don't even have the option to BOTTLE feed because of the expenses, having people who are so willing to share their excess milk supply is a great thing. Even in countries like the US where there are programs for assistance to purchase formula, there are just some who do NOT want to do that (which is understandable), and it's good to have milk banks where mothers with ample supply can provide for mothers with no supply.

liquid gold?????????

I guess I would share mine a la R. kelly

liquid gold is breastmilk not urine...lol.

I breastfed both my babies. I know when ever a crying child was anywhere near me I would leak like crazy. Sometimes my breast would ache as a result. I once heard someone say that when you become a mother, you become a mother to all children in heart. I bet she had a physical and emotional need to feed that child. It would seem like neglect or cruel to have a source of food and walk by a starving child. I would have done the same. Do wet nurses still exist in the civilized world?

I have no clue....I have never even heard of a wet nurse. So I am guessing that a wet nurse is someone who nurses babies when their mothers for what ever reason cant. I know now we have milk banks that people can donate excess milk to for speacial cases when a infant is born sick or premature.

Only for the very very rich who also hire nannies to raise their children instead of doing it themselves.

I would do it. I've not given bith yet and I can't listen to a hungry baby cry without being desperate to feed it.
A traditional wet nurse is paid to feed another woman's baby (either alongside her own, or if she has lost her own baby but still lactating). It was much more common in days of yore among the rich, not sure if it's really practised at all now.

i'd do it! i would also donate milk too.. i cant this time because DD is too old now as the milk changes after 6 months, but next time if i'm in the uk I will try...
http://www.ukamb.org/index.html thats the UK milk donation site for anyone interested.

It isn't just the UK where you can do this

no but its a new thing in the uk, theres only 18 banks in the uk. I think America are more widespread, with more options.

Its been around for more than ten years commercially then far longer in hospitals as it is the only way premature babies are fed here when their mother is not willing or can't.

i wonder why its not better advertised then? i thought it was a USA thing until i googled it, but it makes sense..

The fact that I a 19 year old with no children has known about it for quite a long time shows is it advertised very well.

where is it advertised? i've have a baby, and i've breastfed, been to breastfeeding classes, and groups, and i didn't know about it.
are you in an area close to a milk bank?

I don't know if I'm near any milk banks, it is advertised in our doctors surgery and we are taught about it at school in biology and sex education.

The US has milk banks in certain areas. And you're not limited to having a baby under six months either. Not typically, anyway.

I'd do it.

I wouldn't. What I would do is donate formula and bottles to the child's mother. Not because I'm an evil bitch or anything, but it's not my kid. My daughter didn't get breastfed for numerous reasons, including the fact that she is allergic to milk.

my urine is just as good as any breast milk

sadly the trouble with that is sometimes in these places the water just isn't safe to drink, and the mother will end up making formula with dirty water :(
And also like the nestle conspiracy by encouraging/donating formula means less women can breastfeed, or supply in the women drop so they are forced to use formula they can't afford/have to use dirty water for.

But how are they able to sterilise the bottles, find clean water or to heat the milk?

Fire, I'm guessing that's how they heat things and such. I am not anti-breastfeeding, and I have nothing against anyone breastfeeding other people's kids, but it's just my POV on the situation.

Which then melts the bottle if plastic but will always destroy the teat.

I have sanitized bottles in boiling hot water. I have also sanitized water (due to my mistrust of the water treatment system here) by boiling it. I'm not saying, "put it directly on the fire." I'm saying, boil some water, stick the nipples and the bottles in it, and there ya go, clean bottles and nipples. Boil water, it is sanitized.....