Comments on: Monday Musings: Would You Nurse Another Woman’s Baby?

By: Ellyn

Ellyn — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 20:24:47 +0000

Ok, I know this is late in the game, but my mom offered to nurse my cousin when my aunt had such a hard time (my cousin is 8 weeks older than me).

And I’m in the process of donating to a milk bank. My son has never been a fan of the bottle. He’ll snack throughout the day just to keep his hunger at bay and then nurse heartily on my lunch break & all evening (and most of the night, hooray reverse cycling! j/k). When my step-son’s mom had her baby at 25 weeks I knew the most important thing the baby could have was breast milk. I did offer all of the milk I had stored to them (rather than donating it to a bank) as well as my pump. Unfortunately the baby died 3 days after he was born. She never did answer whether she would take me up on the offer. I also offered my stores to a co-worker who was supplementing with formula. She was weirded out by my offer. I told my sister-in-law that if she hurried up & had a baby I could give her all of my milk. She thought it was funny, but her hubby thought it was weird.

To put it in some perspective, I am the only under 30yr mom I know that exclusively breast fed their child beyond 3 months. Heck, beyond the 6 weeks we get for paid maternity leave! Even the SAHMs I know used formula (crazy talk, in my opinion!). Of the over 30yr moms I know of 5 that exclusively breast fed. One is my OB, one is a nurse, and the other 3 work a 9-5 job like myself. In my opinion that is REALLY sad.
.-= Ellyn´s last blog ..Pocket Diapers for Sale =-.

By: Debbie

Debbie — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 05:43:21 +0000

I have nursed other friend’s babies. A friend had just returned to full time work, and her baby was soo inconsolable. I did check with her before I did this, but once her little one latched on, the *eyeroll* happened and she drifted off to sleep. I also tandem nursed my own (who was just a month older than this one) and her baby. I give HUGE KUDO’S to SALMA HAYEK for nursing another woman’s infant.

By: Allie

Allie — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 05:37:49 +0000

I would nurse another baby in a heartbeat. Even though my son is now 2.5 and nurses only once a day I still often let down in stores when I hear a new born wailing. My son will often say "Baby needs booboo "( his word for breast milk) while I have to fight the urge to nurse them myself! All that said, unless it was an emergency I don't think I would allow my son to be nursed by someone else. I can't really put an intellectual reason to it, although I agree with the points from previous comments. To me it's my job and I don't want anyone else doing it. Allie’s last blog post..Don't Throw Them Away!

By: PrettySprinkles

PrettySprinkles — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 19:10:24 +0000

I would like to confess to having been an awful prude until my daughter was born. I had never even seen anyone breastfeeding until I was pregnant. If you had asked me four years ago I would have said ‘ewww no way’. But now I’m wiser and if it were possible and requested I wouldn’t hesitate. I am no scientist but I know there’s something so vital in breastmilk, it would be the best gift I could ever give.

By: Present Day Milk Outsourcing | Breastfeeding Moms Unite

Present Day Milk Outsourcing | Breastfeeding Moms Unite — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 16:02:18 +0000

[...] poll I ran a poll on Monday asking “Would you breastfeed another woman’s baby?” So far the number of women (I assume they’re women!) saying “yes” far outweigh the [...]

By: Sam @ babyREADY

Sam @ babyREADY — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 04:08:29 +0000

I would do it and I have done it. My challenge, in that I couldn’t have someone do it for me in an emergency, was that my youngest had infantile colitis (quite common) and I was totally casein and gluten free to protect him. Anyone who wanted to nurse my son for me, if had been necessary, would have had to be GF/CF as well.

Love reading here that people are at least open to the idea. Babies deserve moms and families to be open-minded just in case we end up needing something different than we had planned.

Thanks for this intriguing poll. I am curious to see what you do with the information once all of the results are tallied.

By: Melodie

Melodie — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 02:35:07 +0000

@Jake – Yes I will be making the distiction between cross nursing and wet nursing. Thanks for pointing it out for me and the other readers here, as there is that important distiction I don’t know if everyone understands.

@Annie – You raise a good point about really needing to know a person before allowing them to nurse your baby. It gets to be almost impossible to know someone (and their partner) that well. I’m going to talk about some of these issues in Thursday’s post.

@Kim – You raise a good point for me about feeling comfortable about the person behind the milk. Personality traits aren’t passed through breast milk like folks once believed a long time ago, but I don’t think I’d knowingly want someone I didn’t share certain values with nursing my baby. But of course pick and choose situations in emergencies aren’t necessarily available.

@Emily – You have a very nice SIL! You are so fortunate to have such supportive family members.

@Katy – I love how much you and I have in common!

@Maria – Me too.

@Melissa – Thank you for sharing your story here. I think that’s really cool.

Melodie’s last blog post..Monday Musings: Would You Nurse Another Woman’s Baby?