"Gesture of love": Photo of police officer breastfeeding malnourished baby goes viral

[demmiblue]

A police officer in Argentina performed a "gesture of love" after she heard a crying baby that needed to be fed. Officer Celeste Ayala breastfed the malnourished infant, a moment that was captured in a photo and went viral on social media.

Ayala was working her shift Tuesday at Sor María Ludovica in Buenos Aires when the 6-month-old baby was brought in along with five of her siblings by social workers to the hospital, according to Argentine news outlet Clarin. The children were all malnourished and the little girl's cries prompted Ayala, a mother of a newborn herself, to do something.

With the permission of hospital staff, she sprang into action, comforting the baby and breastfeeding her until she stopped weeping. One of her colleagues caught the special interaction in a photo.

"I want to make public this great gesture of love that you made today with that baby, who you did not know, but for who you did not hesitate to act like a mother," said Marcos Heredia, who posted the image to Facebook. "Things like that are not seen every day."

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/celeste-ayala-baby-breastfeed-photo-viral-berisso-argentina-buenos-aires/?ftag=CNM-00-10aab7e&linkId=55799626

Brava, Officer Ayala!