A 26-year-old sick single mum was dumbfounded with the rate of responses she got following a Facebook plea for help to breastfeed her son.
Ronja Wiedenbeck, from Penzance, who suffered ovarian cyst, was rushed from her home to the Royal Cornwall Hospital in Truro with abdominal pain on Sunday April 3, 2016 and was given strong medicine to ease the pain.
Her 11-month old son, Rio, who is transitioning to eating solid food refused to take some milk or formula from a bottle so the distressed mum sent out the plea on the Breastfeeding Yummy Mummies Facebook page and the response she got left her shedding tears of joy.
Within an hour, a stranger was by her hospital bed nursing Rio. In fact, she was inundated with offers of help from women all round the country she received almost 1,000 responses.
About five different women have breastfed Rio, even taking him home to nurse him during the day.
Overjoyed Wiedenbeck said: “I was pumped full of morphine and it seemed instinctive for someone to feed him in a way that he has been used to and he’s comfortable with.
“I’m so grateful and totally overwhelmed with the response to the message,’ added the mum who said the response reduced her to ‘tears of joy’.
The use of wet nurses is believed to be increasing in popularity. A survey by NetMums last year found that one in 25 British mums is already wet nursing a friend or relative’s baby. The survey also revealed two in five mums would breastfeed a stranger’s child.
Below are photos of the volunteers. (Click on any image to enlarge).
