Woman Defended for Breastfeeding Unconscious Sister's Newborn

A woman's choice to breastfeed her sister's newborn has won the internet's support after a painful family dispute.

She asked readers if she was wrong to breastfeed her nephew on Reddit's "Am I The A**hole" forum, posting anonymously as u/areyewokay on Thursday. Her story has gained nearly 10,000 votes and robust backing from the online audience.

The woman explained that her sister gave birth last week, but because of complications during birth, she remained unconscious in the hospital and had yet to meet her baby.

Until her sister woke up, the woman decided together with her brother-in-law that she would temporarily move in and feed the baby with her own breast milk. The brother-in-law was stressed about his wife's condition and needed help caring for the newborn, she said.

"Pumping has been rather difficult because I also have to breastfeed my own kids (twin 11 month olds) and I thought it better to just feed my nephew directly from the breast as well because it saves me both time and pain," the woman added.

Her husband and brother-in-law agreed this was the best solution. The trouble came when her brother-in-law's mother visited the house.

The woman recounted, "[She] saw me breastfeeding him and she immediately blew up calling me vile names, saying I was disgusting and this was inhumane."

Her brother-in-law jumped to her defense, telling his mother that the woman was "simply feeding the baby and literally keeping him alive."

Still, his mother doubled down. "She would hear none of it and literally spat on the floor saying what I'm doing is demonic," said the woman.

The brother-in-law forced her out and said she would not be allowed near the baby until she apologized for her outburst, but the poster said she could not forget about the incident.

"I now can't seem to get it out of my mind that maybe what I'm doing is wrong," she wrote.

However, readers on Reddit leaped to assure her that she took the right course of action.

"Your [brother-in-law]—the baby's damn father—gets to make this determination in this situation," affirmed one comment. "I hope your sister makes a speedy and healthy recovery."

Several others noted that breastfeeding another person's baby to preserve the infant's health was no new concept.

"Women have done this since time immemorial," said one user. "You're doing absolutely the right thing. Please keep that [mother-in-law] away from the house!"

"Wet nurses have been a thing since before we were all born," another added.

Wet nursing, or breastfeeding another person's child, was a common practice before the arrival of reliable baby formula in the mid-20th century. Wet nurses often protected infants from dying in high numbers; by the end of the 18th century, British Empire officials were encouraging women to breastfeed their own children to reduce infant mortality. Now, 85 percent of babies in the U.S. start off on breast milk, although only 25 percent are still exclusively breastfeeding at six months.

Mothers have struggled to feed their babies amid an ongoing shortage of baby formula. The nationwide shortage has dragged on for months, despite President Joe Biden ramping up imports from abroad and production resuming at the Abbott Nutrition plant that issued a safety recall in February. On July 20, more than 20 percent of formula products had been out of stock for six weeks, according to data from the market research firm Information Resources Inc.

Newsweek reached out to u/areyewokay for comment.