A sick mother has turned to Facebook to find strangers willing to breastfeeds her baby son after she fell ill and was unable to do so herself.
Ronja Wiedenbeck, 25, was admitted to hospital last week and placed on medication that rendered her unable to breastfeed her 11-month-old Rio.
Desperate to find a wet nurse for her son who refuses to drink from a bottle, Wiedenbeck turned to Facebook group Breastfeeding Yummy Mummies.
In a plea to readers, Wiedenbeck explained her situation and the hope somebody could assist her.
It took only an hour for the first member to join her at the hospital to feed her baby son.
But the offers didn't stop there.
The mother-of-two was reduced to tears after receiving nearly 1000 offers from women across England, .
In total five different women traveled to the Royal Cornwall Hospital in Truro in order to feed baby Rio.
Wiedenbeck spoke to the Telegraph about what compelled her to reach out.
"I was pumped full of morphine and it seemed instinctive for someone to feed him in a way that he has been used to and he's comfortable with.
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It's wonderful that this mother has been supported in her choice by other breastfeeding mothers. It's great seeing this sort of thing and knowing that there are options available to you if you choose not to formula feed or your baby refuses a bottle.
This is fantastic, but I do worry - and I hope someone can explain for me - don't you have to be incredibly careful that these wet nurses don't have any communicable diseases. Wouldn't you want to have these women screened before they feed your child?
I know you can donate your milk to feed premmy babies in hospitals and such, and I also know that that process is heavily screened - seems crazy to let anyone breastfeed your baby
You are indeed relying on the good faith of other women, that's very much true. However, if the women are breastfeeding their own babies they're extremely unlikely to be putting their own babies at risk, and since they would have been recently pregnant they would have had multiple tests to test for communicable diseases like Hep B, Hep C and, depending on the care provider, HIV.
When you're pregnant or breastfeeding it's a time in a woman's life when she is going to be most careful about their health because they also love their own baby and don't want their babies to come to any harm.
thanks Zepgirl. As someone who is due in July with my first child, it was something that was on my mind re contamination.