Salma Hayek breastfeeds African baby
Photo courtesy of Telegraph.co.ukThe Examiner.com is reporting that Salma Hayek breastfed a very hungry baby boy in Sierra Leone:
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.
Hayek said 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.
Read the entire article here.
Cross nursing and wet nursing
The La Leche League has an interesting article about attitudes and responses to cross nursing and wet nursing. You can read it here. From the La Leche League: Cross Nursing—the occasional nursing of another's infant while the mother continues to nurse her own child, often in a child care situation. Wet Nursing—the complete nursing of another's infant, often for pay.
Male lactation
Did you know that it is possible for men to breastfeed? Yes. It is. Scientific America reports on this extremely rare occurrence.
Relevant links:
ABC News video of Salma Hayek cross nursing an African baby.
South African Times reports on man who breastfed daughter.
Male lactation listing at Wikipedia
Nation Master Encyclopedia entry on the Dayak Fruit Bat: The Dayak fruit bat is the only known mammalian species where male lactation might be standard.
...And yet another reason why I firmly believe she is among the greatest women walking.....this was a great blog!
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She is awesome! One of the bloggers on EW.com, the web site for Entertainment Weekly, declared the video clip winner of the "biggest eyebrow-raiser award" and called Hayek cool "because her left breast has now done more for humanity in a few minutes than I've done in roughly my life."
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The act of nursing someone else's baby should now be known as "Hayeking". I love Salma!
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Done! I love the expression on the baby's face as he is nursing -- his eyes just roll with ecstasy.
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