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Motherless Baby Breastfed By Six Women Each Day
A baby without a mom. A bunch of moms still breastfeeding their own babies. It was just meant to be.
You don’t hear about death during childbirth much anymore, (and thank goodness for that), but when Susan Goodrich lost her life shortly after giving birth to her son, one of her most important wishes for her child was fulfilled by a band of impromptu wet nurses, moms who heard a baby needed their help.
Charles Moses Martin Goodrich was born on Jan. 11, but when his dad said he wanted the boy to receive breastmilk right off the bat, he was told the hospital didn’t have a milkbank. A delivery could come in from elsewhere in Michigan, but it would take several days to ship.
Then Robbie Goodrich got a call of condolence from a friend, a mom who was still nursing her one-year-old daughter. Anything the family needed, she said, anything. . . even her breastmilk. It’s when Robbie told his hometown paper that things clicked – he realized other moms might want to help him in his plight, and he called on a family friend to help him round up moms with something to give.
The found twenty total women who set up a schedule – six times a day, Charles has been fed by a different woman (that’s one of the volunteers pictured). And by fed, I mean actually suckling at the breast.That is the most incredible part of the story to me – that these women don’t just pump their milk and ship it over. With children at home (obviously), they drop everything to drive to the Goodrich home and allow a stranger’s baby to nurse. It’s the kind of love only a parent could muster for a child – but these aren’t his parents!
At night, his father feeds him with bottles of milk pumped by the volunteers, and Charles is a happy, healthy baby despite his rough start to life.
The subject became controversial recently with Salma Hayek’s highly publicized feeding of another woman’s child, which some called a publicity stunt. There’s no way these nameless women could be accused of the same thing. More to the point, what they’re doing is life-sustaining while Hayek’s one-off feeding was not going to drastically change a child’s life.
What do you think of this? Would you do it? Or would you just pump your milk and send it over?
Image/Source: The Mining Journal
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15 Comments
Anonymous commented on Jan 01 70 at 12:00 amThis story makes me so weepy. My heart goes out to this baby’s family and to all those wonderful women who are sharing their breastfeeding. Breastfeeding is more than just milk–this baby is receiving so much love.
Anonymous commented on Jan 01 70 at 12:00 amThis story has left me teary eyed and speechless.
My own mother died when I was 10 days old. A bit of a maverick in the early 70′s, she was committed to breastfeeding against her doctor’s advice. Unfortunately, she was unable to do it after a couple of days as she became increasingly sick. My care was taken over by my aunt and I was formula fed (with lots of problems).
I am now breastfeeding my own two year old, am studying to become a lactation consultant, and would jump at the chance to help out in the way that these women are. Much love to them!
Anonymous commented on Jan 01 70 at 12:00 amSeriously? The baby is not going to fall. I breastfed my babies in that position often. If you look closely her hand is on his back.
Very heartwarming story.
Anonymous commented on Jan 01 70 at 12:00 amI have donated breastmilk in the past to a woman with an adopted baby, so as far as that goes I see nothing wrong with it. I just wonder how long a schedule like that can be kept up. At some point they are going to have a dropout or three.
Anonymous commented on Jan 01 70 at 12:00 amWow, this brought tears to my eyes. That’s just beautiful.
JeanneSager commented on Jan 01 70 at 12:00 amNicole – they have milk banks for this kind of thing – maybe you could look into donating to a milk bank?
Anonymous commented on Jan 01 70 at 12:00 amI’m a surrogate who will have no newborn to nurse following the delivery (when milk comes in, painfully as I recall). I would 100% give the milk away or feed a baby in need. My first two kids breastfed like champs and it seems like such a waste to me to have a painful abundance of milk with nowhere for it to go…
Anonymous commented on Jan 01 70 at 12:00 amThis is so sweet, it’s made me all verklempt.
Although, I know it’s nit-picking but I always feel like I need to mention this – The only reason we don’t ‘hear about death during childbirth anymore’ is because we live in a wealthy, developed country and are able to turn a deaf ear to the 500,000 women who die each year in pregnancy and childbirth related causes around the world.
Sorry, had to get that out of my system – this is still a beautiful and inspiring story!
Anonymous commented on Jan 01 70 at 12:00 amI agree, so wonderful!
I am worried about that baby falling in the picture though. can someone donate a boppy or an arm or something to that poor kid?
Anonymous commented on Jan 01 70 at 12:00 amThis is lovely and heartwarming. It’s a selfless act of love from all the women involved.
Alice, “nipple confusion”results in the difference in mechanism and flow between breastfeeding and bottle feeding via an artificial nipple. Many, although certainly not all, babies have a difficult time in the early days going from one to the other. Particularly because bottle feeding requires little effort on the part of the baby and has a very fast flow, thus giving baby an ‘easy reward’.
However, although breastfeeding requires more work and skill it aids in oral development. These differences are why moms who wish to breastfeed are advised to hold off bottle feeding for the first several weeks.
Anonymous commented on Jan 01 70 at 12:00 amI pray that if a child in that sort of need comes my way, that I’m able to offer that sort of assistance.
Anonymous commented on Jan 01 70 at 12:00 amOne of my good friends had a baby while I was still breastfeeding my son. If for some health reason she’d needed me to, I absolutely would have nursed her baby too. I think I’d feel weird doing it just for kicks, but if there was a need–heck yeah.
Anonymous commented on Jan 01 70 at 12:00 amThis has actually been pretty common all over the world for centuries. My grandmother said in her day it was common to nurse someone elses baby. She said in the country if there was no mother to feed the baby the child would be brought to a woman still nursing to feed until it was old enough to place with a permanent home. I know lots of adoptive mothers who have breast fed their adopted babies or all ages. The only incredbile thing about it is that so many women volunteered to do it in this day and age. I guess this throws out the whole “nipple confusion” crap the lacatation people tell us. A hungry baby will eat if it can. Salma Hayak did a good thing. That baby she fed was hungry and its cries were pitiful.
Anonymous commented on Jan 01 70 at 12:00 amWet nurses have been around for hundreds of years. This is such a generous and selfless thing for these women to do, and they should be applauded, not berated or scoffed at. Bravo.
Anonymous commented on Jan 01 70 at 12:00 amI think this is one of the nicest things I have ever heard. What lovely people!
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