Is Breast Always Best?

Is breast still best when it belongs to someone other than the child's own mother? It's an ethical debate that our generation has never been challenged with before but that has recently been brought into the spotlight. It's no big secret anymore that Salma Hayek rocked the world when she was recently filmed breastfeeding a child that wasn't her own. But, if you've been in a cave (or have pregnancy brain) and aren't sure exactly what I'm talking about, here's the deal...

Salma, who has admitted to being addicted to breastfeeding her one year old daughter Valentina Paloma, was in Sierra Leone on a goodwill trip to support a tetanus vaccination project when she encountered a mother with no milk and a starving child. The child, one week old and coincidentally born on the same day as Salma's own daughter, nursed while Salma expressed her amazement. She said her decision to nurse the child was made, in part, out of compassion for a suffering child. She recalled a story her grandmother had told her about her great-grandmother making a similar decision many years before in a small Mexican village and said that she plans to always teach Valentina to be a generous and caring person.



So, the question is this...what would you do? Of course, there are issues to consider such as the passing of infections, the psychological implications, and the decrease in milk supply in the donor, but what if those were taken out of the picture? What if you were confronted with just a baby in need? Would it make a difference if the baby belonged to someone you knew versus a stranger's child? And, what if the tables were turned? What if something happened to you and you were unable to nurse for 36 hours? How would you feel about having someone else nurse your child?

Eternal Maternal Mama isn't here to make a judgement call one way or another. The answer to whether breast is best in every situation is a very personal one, and one that a mother must make for herself and her own child. Applause to Salma, though, for such a selfless act of compassion and for being so forthright about it, too!