[Photo: Facebook/Marcos Heredia]
The Internet has heaped praise on Argentinian police officer after an image of her breastfeeding a neglected baby went viral.
The baby was seriously malnourished when he arrived at the Sister Maria Ludovica Children’s Hospital in Buenos Aires, following reports that the child’s mother was struggling to look after him.
Spotting that staff were overworked, police officer Celeste Ayala asked if she could help hold and then breastfeed the baby, who was described by staff as being “smelly and dirty.”
A colleague uploaded an image of the touching moment to social media and the picture has since gone viral, clocking up over 110K shares and 152K reactions.
Speaking about her actions to local media Celeste explained: “I noticed that he was hungry, as he was putting his hand into his mouth, so I asked to hug him and breastfeed him.
“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.”
The local fire department, who Celeste also volunteers for, released a statement praising her actions.
“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.”
And the Internet was also quick to show their support for the caring officer.
“Congratulations a great gesture they don’t teach you anywhere,” one FB user wrote in Spanish (translated to English).
“Beautiful gesture, congratulations,” agreed another.