Green Options

Most people responded positively to the Baby Moses story. His mother died of a rare condition shortly after birth. And not only did he and his family find support from the community in their grieving, they also found a network of women to breastfeed him throughout the day, every day.

Now Moses is 6 months old. And you know what? He’s still getting breastmilk.

Many of the same women are still breastfeeding the little guy. But over time, some have stopped as their own children weened. Others joined this cross-nursing crew.

Together, they told their updated story to Freep.com.

A group of Michigan moms have stepped up to feed a baby boy whose mom died shortly after birth.

Baby Moses Goodrich was in desperate need after his mom Susan died of a rare amniotic fluid embolism. Breast is best, of course, but the hospital didn’t have any breastmilk available for the little guy. The grieving father didn’t know where to turn.

Then he got a call from a family friend, Laura Janowski, who was still nursing her 1-year-old. Professor Goodrich made the good decision,

That’s when it clicked in my head. I wanted the baby to be nursed. That’s something that Susan would have wanted.

Breastfeeding can be a hardcore subject.  If you nurse your baby, for how long? If you don’t, why not? If you do breastfeed, are you allowed to do it in public?

But one thing that most breastfeeders don’t think of is this: Would you donate your breastmilk?

Breastmilk donation came in my mind again when I wrote the blog about Salma Hayek breastfeeding an infant in Sierra Leone while on a vaccination (tetanus) campaign. And when I read about Nadya Suleman breastfeeding her octuplets, I wondered: If we’re not naturally meant to give birth to this many babies, will she be able to keep her supply up? Or will she have to turn to milk donations?