Breastfeeding a stranger’s child

As a breastfeeding mum though it would never have occurred to me to worry whether there was formula milk available at a location tbh.

I’ve fed a friend’s baby (& she fed mine). It made it possible for us to care for each others babies without their being distressed (they both fed to sleep!). It was a short period of time for obvious reasons & probably only happened a couple of times.

EXACTLY 👏

No I wouldn’t. If I knew I’d be going on a journey I’d have packed formula. I dont see how this is so hard to understand that some of us don’t want our baby on another woman’s breast? Don’t shame others because they’re not interested in this communal breastfeeding thing that you find perfectly normal.

It’s perfectly natural and once upon a time was very normal.

I do think I’d struggle to do it myself though. I’m not one of those women that find other babies and toddler that cute and I generally don’t enjoy holding them and feel quite on edge the whole time. I’m sure I could do it if I needed to but I would find it difficult.

I think I’d actually find it easier the other way round - if, hypothetically I had a baby who was hungry and crying and for whatever reason I couldn’t get to them, I’d be very happy for another woman to nurse them.

My grandmother died when my mum was little in Malaysia. She was still being weened and was breastfed by another women. This woman and my mother were very close.

I can't wrap my head around the emergency situation though. Why would you ever put yourself into an emergency situation where there's no milk? Surely the only situation that would be if the mother was unconscious or something and there were no shops around?

What was the situation at the airport?

Victorian author Anthony Trollope wrote of Lady Arabella, one of his characters who employed a wet nurse because she ‘couldn’t’ breastfeed, ‘The Ladies Arabella never can. They have bosoms for show, but not for use.’

Breastfeeding sends signal to the brain which changes the milk composition for the baby. It’s not exactly optimal to be mixing up feeders especially for milk supply. It’s not just a keg of milk as people are suggesting.

It doesn’t have to be that remote, I doubt for example you could get formula in Newquay airport?

That’s fair enough. I feel like (unlike the vast majority of posters here who seem to over dramatise) if it’s a desperate situation I’d sort of get it.

I still find it weird though. It’s up to mothers what they do with their children but it’s also okay for other mothers to find it weird!

I don't think it is disturbing at all. Wet nurses were very common in Victorian times.
Feeding a starving baby is never wrong and there is nothing more weird about feeding them human breast milk than there is in feeding them artificial milk from another animal

You're being a bit ridiculous in your responses. There are plenty of situations outside of a warzone where you wouldn't necessarily have access to formula. Say you were somewhere like a remote airport, were going to be stuck there for a number of hours. There aren't shops other than maybe a cafe.... you still wouldn't let your hungry baby be breastfed by another woman because of how it would affect you emotionally?

I wonder how remote this airport was though - maybe somewhere in the middle of Africa or Nepal. Those ready-made cartons of formula are likely not available in every airport.

@IdleAnimations aren’t you lucky to be somewhere with access to lots of shops with formula. I’m not, I’ve to drive 45mins to get to one, if for some reason there was no way of doing this, and I had run out of formula what would you have me do? Not ask my breastfeeding neighbour obviously.

Massive eye roll to that.

In a developed country there is formula in every shop. I also wouldn’t plan to have left them hours without feeding myself.

For the last time I’m going to say it, stop being so over dramatic. Unless in a war zone the baby shouldn’t be starved and formula is ready made in lots of shops. 🙄

There are lots of things we find disturbing in our day to day life, yet when presented to us in a crisis or life and death situation we behave in ways we might not normally do.

It's similar to being on the Tube and our personal space being reduced to nothing - it that situation it's perfectly OK (maybe not pleasant!) to be pressed up against someone. We change our eye contact behaviour accordingly (subconsciously).
If you're pressed up against someone in the supermarket queue they would (quite rightly) feel quite put out and uncomfortable.

Don’t be so over dramatic. Nearly every shop I’ve been in has had ready made formula. I am doubtful someone would let it get to the point a child is actually starved unless they’re in a war zone.

My tiny baby was in a different hospital to me (I was ill) so a mum at that hospital, with her own bairn, fed my baby too.
I will never know who she was but I am forever grateful.

If it were a baby too young for any other source of food and I could help then I absolutely would. I wouldn’t breastfeed another woman’s toddler though, that is where I’d draw the line.

A lot of people assuming the mother of the baby was incapacitated. I think it’s more like she was a formula fed baby who for whatever reason had no access to formula. This is not a situation exclusive to war torn or natural disaster stricken countries, only two years ago there was a severe formula shortage in the USA, and in the early days of Covid it was extremely difficult to get formula in the UK as adults panicked and bought some for milk for their tea 🙄

Highly over dramatic when formula is around nearly everywhere.

Wouldn't have bothered me in those circumstances, either feeding someone's baby or someone else feeding mine.
Totally normal in a lot of countries and in the olden times.

Would genuinely rather get formula.

War torn counties and natural disasters.

I read one story where a baby was found and an emergency worker happened to have recently had a baby, BF the baby. I think that was during the Turkey earthquakes.