Salma Hayek breast feeding frenzy in Africa
This video of Salma Hayek breastfeeding an African baby has prompted all sorts of mixed reaction.
According to an article from Salon.com, Hayek was being filmed by a “Nightline” camera crew on a recent humanitarian mission in Sierra Leone, when she came across the starving baby of a woman unable to breast-feed. She pulled out her own breast on camera and nursed the baby.
Hayek, who is still breast-feeding her 1-year-old daughter, explains her decision simply: “It’s about women sticking together and we really need to help the children in any way we can.”
A colleague at the Post-Dispatch sent me an email about the video, saying: [There is a] broader discussion about whether someone would feed another woman’s child. I imagine there would be all kinds of health concerns about transmission of substances from the mother’s breast milk to the child, and perhaps vice versa, besides the social/cultural proprieties. Although that’s basically what “wet nurses” used to do generations ago.
I nursed each of my children and - to be perfectly honest - if I saw a starving baby, I might have asked the mother if she wanted me to nurse him or her. (If there was no other nearby source of nutrition available). But it does seem kind of unsettling to nurse another woman’s child. Would you have done what Salma Hayek did?
Aisha covered education and breaking news for nearly ten years before joining the Lifestyle staff where she writes a "Dirty Laundry" parenting column. She is the home and family editor and wastes too much time on Facebook and political blogs. 
You’re asking, if I saw a starving child and was able to help, would I? Yes.
A lot of people, it seems, are squeamish when the source of nutrition is breast milk. But Hayek is right: “we really need to help the children in any way we can.” If I have nutrition — breast milk — available, and sharing it may help save another woman’s child, you bet I will share.
It’s funny that we’re ok with cow’s milk and whatever the heck is in formula, but a milk from our own species makes us squimish. I have personally nursed the baby of a friend and my own son has been nursed by her. We don’t just randomly nurse other children, but if once is in my care and either doesn’t take a bottle or just need a little extra comfort, I’m happy to offer.
I applaud Salma for putting actions behing her words. There have been many articles written about how babies could be saved by nursing mothers in emergency situations.
I found her act beautiful and not a big unsettling, but I guess I roll with a different crowd and once something becomes a common act to you, it would seem odd NOT to feed the baby.
I would do this in a heartbeat. There is nothing wrong with it. I think any woman who could help would. I could not stand there and let a child go hungry. I might even do it against the mothers wishes if the child was hungry.
I nursed both of my children and was the best experience. If I were in Salma’s circumstance I would have done the same exact thing! I Would rather do something that I know I could to help the starving child than rather be conservative and not do the right thing because of what ‘could’ be taboo. People have too much time on their hands to worry about things like this!
Yes, I would do anything to help a starving baby. I have breastfed another baby before because the mother desperatly wanted me to — she had no milk to give him. In some cultures this makes me a adoptive mother in a way—
There is no better source of nutrition…BREAST is BEST….
Of course I would help a starving child? This was common practice in the past and there’s nothing disgusting about it. I would assume that nowadays in a more formal situation the volunteer “wetnurse” would have to prove she did not carry any conditions transmittable through breast milk and was not currently taking any medications unfit for a woman to take while breastfeeding, but in an emergency situation, which this was- to heck with formalities. Why are people so hesitant to help one another? We even had to enact Good Samaritan Laws in America to prevent people from lawsuits for doing good deeds, like the Heimlich maneuver. For a woman to have to face backlash for helping her fellow humans to survive is beyond reproach. I applaud her actions and only hope I have the courage to act in her manner during my lifetime.
So has anyone verified if the baby could have passed on any disease to Salma Hayek? Isn’t the AIDS rate pretty high in Africa (I actually had to look up Sierra Leone on Google Maps)? So from those of you who said you’d do the same thing as Salma, does that thought not play a role? I think you ladies could say, “in theory” you would do this in a heartbeat…but what are the odds in the real world?
I wrote about this on Helium. You can view my + Positive article on breastfeeding here: http://www.helium.com/items/1210664-should-magazine-covers-feature-women-breastfeeding
Seems silly to ask such a question! Of course!
Silly question? Seriously? You all did read this is in Sierra Leone - Africa? Just a little research from avert.org reveals:
“However, among women who are infected with HIV and receiving no antiretroviral treatment or other interventions, breastfeeding for two or more years can double the rate of mother-to-child transmission to around 40% (the rest of the transmission occurs during pregnancy, labour and delivery). In Africa, between one third and one half of infant HIV infections are due to breastfeeding.”
Now maybe there is a lot more to this that I may not understand, but in no way do I think anyone here would just automatically breastfeed a starving child and put your own life and family at risk? My guess is Sayek didn’t think about the risks at all - probably because the camera was on her - and made a hasty decision.