Police Officer In Argentina Breastfeeds Malnourished Baby At Hospital

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Cop Breastfeeds Malnourished Baby While On Duty At Hospital

People all over the internet are praising a police officer in Argentina after photos of her breastfeeding a malnourished baby on the job went viral.

Officer Celeste Jaqueline Ayala was working guard duty at the Sor Maria Ludovica children’s hospital in Buenos Aires, when a neglected baby was brought into the facility.

Once the child arrived, Ayala immediately asked to hold the baby, who hospital staff described as both “smelly and dirty,” and then began to nurse him, according to reports from the Mirror. Marcos Heredia, who witnessed the whole thing, took a photo of the good deed and posted it on Facebook, where it has since gained over 156,000 likes.

“I want to make public this great gesture of love that you had today with that little baby,” read Heredia’s post, which has been loosely translated from Spanish. “Who without knowing you didn’t hesitate and for a moment you fulfilled how if you were her mother. You don’t care about filth and smell … things like that don’t [happen] every day.”

According to Ayala, she did not even think twice about helping the baby in need. The infant was reportedly the youngest of six brought in by a struggling single mother.

“I noticed that he was hungry, as he was putting his hand into his mouth, so I asked to hug him and breastfeed him,” she recalled. “It was a sad moment, it broke my soul seeing him like this, society should be sensitive to the issues affecting children, it cannot keep happening.”

Now, Ayala’s kind-hearted move has prompted tons of praise on social media and a Twitter campaign using her name as a hashtag.

It’s not only those on social networks paying their respects for her selflessness, either. The Bomberos Voluntarios Berisso fire brigade, where Ayala volunteers, paid their own tribute to the selfless woman as well:

“We want to congratulate the voluntary firefighting cadet Celeste Ayala who yesterday in her job as police officer whilst she was on guard duty at the hospital, breastfed a young child who arrived crying. Actions like these fill us with pride and obligate us to redouble the effort, the work and the solidarity with our community,” the brigade wrote, as reported by the Mirror.