Breastfeeding was a common practice before the invention of infant formulas and feeding bottles. Moreover, a woman whose body produces something naturally has the choice to use it in a powerful and positive way. That’s exactly what Frida star and longtime advocate for women’s welfare Salma Hayek did, offering her milk to the malnourished and hungry baby of a complete stranger.
See what the star says about the incident in the gallery:
Actress and producer Salma Hayek arrived in Sierra Leone in September 2008, not as a celebrity but as part of a humanitarian organization to participate in an African charity mission. During her tour of a hospital, she comes across a mother who has run out of milk. Hayek, who had a one-year-old daughter at the time, took the stranger’s malnourished one-week-old son and began to breastfeed him despite the presence of numerous film crews around her.
After the breastfeeding incident, she admits she had mixed feelings about whether she had been loyal to her own daughter by giving her milk. But then she thought her daughter wouldn’t mind sharing her milk, but instead she said, “I actually think my baby would be very proud to be able to share her milk.” She also stated that when her daughter grows up, she will encourage her to continue to be a generous and caring person. And she proudly added, “I think this is the best thing I can give her as a mother.”
Hayek also explains that the idea of helping a child in this way is a long-standing tradition in her family. In fact, many years ago in a Mexican village, her great-grandmother saved the starving baby of an inconsolably crying stranger by nursing the child, who in turn instantly stopped crying.
Hayek claims that her decision to breastfeed a stranger’s child was also an attempt to reduce the stigma placed on women for breastfeeding. And with this act of kindness, she also clearly and emphatically stated that women should have choices and not be afraid of their bodies.
