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Parenting

15th Feb 2017

THIS is what happened when a woman asked strangers on the street to breastfeed her baby

Trine Jensen-Burke

Apart from actually giving birth, breastfeeding is pretty much the most intimate bond a mother shares with her baby.

In fact, even now, more than two years after I stopped breastfeeding my little boy, I still miss those moments of silent bonding. When he would be in my arms and our skin would touch and his little fingers would be twirling at my hair or grasping at my top in that adorable way infants do.

But much as I loved breastfeeding my own babies, I will be the first to admit that it would maybe feel a little strange to feed someone else’s baby? Not that I have ever been asked to do so – although my sister and me, who, on both occasions had babies within months of each other, always joked that babysitting was no issue, as we, if needed, always had milk, well, handy.

How would you react if you were asked to feed a stranger’s baby, though? That’s what MailOnline wanted to find out when they sent an actress out to ask mothers on the street if they could help out feeding her hungry baby.

Actress Amanda Holley ventured out onto the streets of Brixton, Dulwich and Brockwell in south London and asked eight women with babies, ‘Would you be able to breastfeed for me?’

Their response?

“The warmth, the generosity and the empathy blew me away,” Holley said after the experiment.

Here is how it went dow:

The first woman, after initially replying ‘sorry?’ to the question, offered to fetch some Aptamil infant milk from her house.

The next lady, however, approached outside a newsagent, immediately replied ‘yes’ and said she was ‘happy to help’ according to the newspaper. She then walked with Holley to a cafe as she discussed using an express machine to extract the milk.

Next up, the actress approached a woman waiting to cross a road and asked if she could help out. She replied, ‘It would make me feel quite uncomfortable’, before agreeing to use an express machine to help feed Holley’s baby.

Here is the full response from the women asked to help breastfeed Holley’s baby:

 1 – Offered to fetch Aptamil

2 – Yes

3 – Offered to express milk

4 – No, had an appointment

 5 – Had frozen milk at home

6 – No

7 – No, running out of milk

8 – Offered to try expressing milk

That is a result stating that 62 percent actually offered to help out with this intimate request – a figure that surprised Holley and the rest of the journalists behind the experiment.

What do YOU think, mamas? Would you help breastfeed another woman’s baby if asked? Or would it make you feel uncomfortable? Let us know in the comments or tweet us at @Herfamilydotie