subbrock

no and no. kind of. id be more likely to do either if it was feeding expressed breastmilk from a bottle.

sarah42

In emergency circumstances, I'd breastfeed another baby.

I'd be less likely to let another woman breastfeed my baby, unless I knew and trusted her completely. HIV (and probably other diseases) can be transmitted through breastmilk, and I wouldn't be willing to take that chance.

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nynaeve77

I would do it for someone else in case of an emergency, but I'd be leery to let someone else do it for me.

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Amneris

In an emergency, yes, it would be OK. I expressed milk for a woman I knew with low supply for a year. I look at her son as my son's milk brother - they're 3 weeks apart and really good friends. If I had difficulty with supply, I would rather my baby have someone else's expressed milk than formula, and hopefully it would be no charge as my milk was for my friend, so besides the health benefits, it would be cheaper. But if the baby were stranded somewhere and the only option to feed him was for another woman to nurse him, that would be OK (the only concern I would have would be HIV.) I would do the same for someone else without hesitation. If I found an abandoned baby somewhere, I'd feed it.

I do agree that a big part of nursing is the emotional bond, and it would be hard to watch someone else foster that on an ongoing basis with my child. Expressed milk in a bottle provides the nutrients without that extra closeness, so that's why it seems preferable. If it were a once or twice only thing, like RCW described doing to help demonstrate a good latch, that would be OK as well. But it's really important to me that I am the only person who nurses my son, especially now that we're separated for a good chunk of the day and it is the way that we reconnect and that he knows I am still there for him.

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boarderhopper

Yes.

a curly q

yes boarderhopper... that would be assumed. Back to OP, in an emergency situation only, even then I'd have to think about it really hard.

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deezee02

Not unless it was an emergency situation.

velvet paws

Probably not, unless it was an emergency and there was no formula around. The thought of it makes me feel icky, I really associate breastfeeding with bonding and I'd be very very uncomfortable with it. And, while Lucas is breastfed, I'm not one of those omg-formula-is-poison people, so in a situation like that I'd prefer that he get a bottle of formula than breastmilk from a stranger.

Also, I breastfeed in public all the time - in restaurants, in stores, on the beach, in the park, in the airport, on planes and trains etc. Nobody has ever said boo about it.

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webjockey

Yes and yes if there was no other food available that he/she would consume.

Although if I couldn't breastfeed long term for some reason, I'd have to think long and hard about getting a wet nurse. I'm not sure how expensive that would be, and it would certainly affect my decision making process.

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PixieCurl

Would you prefer formula over pumped milk from a stranger (if you knew it was free of diseases)? Not criticizing, just curious.

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mad scientist

I'm not VP, but yes, I would preferentially give formula.

I feel that a woman's breastmilk is the ideal food for her child, not necessarily anyone else's. Not exactly sure why... maybe its because I don't think we fully know what is in breastmilk. Disease testing is also not fool-proof - we can only test for certain things detectable in certain levels.

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Scuba Gal

Yes. as you know from my diatribe at Creepy that I have a lot of issues in this area and am a walking pharmacy at this point, I am not one to go down the donor milk path.... just can't do it.

My son gets 1/3 bm and the rest formula.

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PixieCurl

I dig. Thanks for the replies

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MistressM.

I don't have kids, but I don't like the idea of it. If it was an emergency situation, there was no formula around, then maybe I'd be ok with it. I'd still be a little iffy. Like others have said, I'm not sure what all is transmitted through breastmilk. I was formula fed and likely will formula feed if I have children.

rainshower

this basically sums it up for me, in addition to the intimacy factor that i noted above.

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Sigi

If it were a life or death, emergency situation, I'd let another woman breastfeed my baby. But other than that, no, I'm too jealous/possessive/psycho to let anyone share that bond with my baby. And I don't want someone else's milk in a bottle either.

I breastfeed my baby because I can and I want to, but if that were to change for whatever reason I have nothing against formula.

I won't openly nurse in public though either, I'll go to a dressing room if I'm shopping or I'll bottle feed formula if we're in a restaurant or somewhere where I can't have privacy. Those are my own issues though, other women NIP don't bother me at all.

velvet paws

Honestly, I would. I can't really articulate why. Maybe something like what Mad Scientist said. It's probably just my own weirdo hangup about it. It just seems too intimate to come from anyone but me.

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MaybeWavy

Yes, I would not hesitate to nurse someone elses baby, and no, I'd not hesitate to allow someone else* to feed my child (*assuming I a) knew the person and b) knew what she ate/behaviors she engaged in)

A hungry baby is a hungry baby, and if I had the ability to fix it, BM from any source is better than formula. ESPECIALLY soy formula...

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I'm voting for Bunny.

geeky

Same here. It would be an automatic response for me and I don't think formula would even enter my mind.

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Amneris

Yeah - honestly, I would try absolutely everything before formula. The smell of it and the ingredient lists make it something that I'm not comfortable feeding my baby. Taking intimacy out of the picture, breast milk has antibodies and nutrients formula does not and that would help me get over any qualms of having my baby take another woman's milk, once I knew she was healthy.

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