Breastfeeding saves shipwrecked...

[Flamesparrow]

Breast-feeding woman becomes a celebrity

El Listin Diario reports that 31-year old Faustina Mauricio Mercedes
(Angelita o Ana Maria Mercedes), the native of Sabana de la Mar who saved
her shipwrecked 16 fellow boat trip passengers, has become an international
celebrity. Mercedes breastfed her fellow companions for 12 days at sea,
saving them from dehydration. The group didn't make it to Puerto Rico, but
all survived the trip thanks to her generosity. Her story has appeared in
Hispanic media in the US (Telemundo, Univision) and has been carried by wire
services such as AP, and by the BBC and Diario El Pais of Spain.
The director of the National Commission of Breastfeeding, Dr. Josefina
García said that her department is organizing an event to honor Mercedes.
She also said they are filling out the paperwork to get the feet into the
Guiness Book of World Records.
Unicef has also recognized Mercedes.

[dinny]

wonder what she drank....?

[Cappuccino]

oh that sounds like a load of cock

sorry

[SherlockLGJ]

Dinny

You beat me to it.

Cappo

Don't hold back.

[mustrunmore]

How can that be true?

[princessmel]

Wow! If thats true its amazing!

[colditz]

She must have been immensely fat to breastfeed 16 adults for 2 weeks and survive.

[daisy1999]

oh dear

[hunkermunker]

See artwork here

I think it's possible. But I speak as one possessed of positively enormous milky pillows.

[hunkermunker]

The adults would have been unlikely to have had six feeds a day each and needed rocking to sleep after each one though.

[daisy1999]

completely impossible surely if she had nothing to drink she would dehydrate. milk can't be produced from nothing.

[hunkermunker]

Why couldn't she have drunk her own milk?

[Joolstoo]

oh hunker - you soooo want it to be true!

I don't know whether it is or isn't possible so can't comment

[daisy1999]

hunker she could have drunk her own milk but she needs to take in enough fluid for normal bodily needs and enough fluid to produce milk. Bearing in mind 16 other people were also drinking her milk how could she possibly after a couple of days keep producing that volume of milk without additional fluid.

[hunkermunker]

Maybe she topped them up?

[daisy1999]

lol hunker. ok we'll say it's true. If I find this place today to decorate pottery I shall make the lady a mug in the shape of an enormous pair of breasts in honour of her achievement

[Cappuccino]

like I said

load of cock

[Amelya]

maybe she drank their wee....

[SoupDragon]

She could have fed them enough to avoid dehydration but the article doesn't say they were well fed and healthy does it? Just that they survived.

[SherlockLGJ]

What is that Urban Myth website ?

[SaintGeorgeMarple]

No, I'm pretty sure it was a load of boob Cappucino, your anatomy is a little off.

[thewomanwhothoughtshewasahat]

If you think about this carefully (and given that it's bunkum I'm not entirely sure what the point is...) - it seems apparent she did not save them from dehydration. She may, however, have helped them lose less weight than they might otherwise have had. (but wouldn't have saved them from starvation as you don;t starve to death in 12 days).

A group of people needs a certain volume of fluids in order to survive, if they didn;t have that volume of fluid available they would die. If however you were on a boat with enough water for all of you (and let's assume they were - because they survived) and a lactating woman then it might make sense (esp if you're selfish...) to make use of the nourishment generating power she has - she's the only person on the boat capable of turning that water into something nourishing. She is getting that nourishment from her own body (let's assume they had nothing to eat). So effectively what they are doing is redistributing calories. It's like the old cannibal thing. except without killing her. She would be very very thin, and they would be less thin than they might have otherwise have been. But if there was enough fluid on he boat to keep them all alive, there was enough fluid to keep them all alive....feeding it through her kept them in better nick, didn;t keep them alive.

[dinny]

wonder if they all stayed above the 50th centile...?

[Flamesparrow]

I had it in an email - didn't occur to me to question the logistics of it!

[catsmother]

As a bit of an aside, has anyone read Steinbeck's 'Grapes of Wrath' ? This story reminded me of it.

If so, do you remember when near the end Rose of Sharon (whose baby had died) breastfed a dying old man to try and save him (if I remember rightly, it's years since I read it). I remember being totally shocked by that scene ..... not because it was "disgusting" per se, but because Steinbeck obviously wanted to illustrate the utter desperation for some people in Depression America.

[Flamesparrow]

I thought of that too. It was a book that my mum told me not to read until I had a child of my own, and I understood why - I don't think that you can read it with the same pain without having had a child/known the same kind of love iyswim.