Recently a photo was posted online, which is still doing the rounds where a police officer could be seen breastfeeding a ‘malnourished and dirty’ baby that was brought into a hospital where she was on guard duty.
Reports say, the officer, Celeste Ayala was working at the Sor Maria Ludovica children’s hospital in Buenos Aires, Argentina when the baby was brought in crying desperately.
Hoy recibimos a Celeste, la oficial que amamantó a un bebé en el Hospital de Niños de #LaPlata para notificarle su ascenso. Queríamos agradecerle en persona ese gesto de amor espontáneo que logró calmar el llanto del bebé. La policía que nos enorgullece, la policía que queremos. pic.twitter.com/8aBp0Xj4Zj
— Cristian Ritondo (@cristianritondo) August 17, 2018
It turns out that the officer asked doctors for permission to hold the baby and feed him as doctors were too busy to look after him.
Once permission as given Ayala cuddled the baby and started to breastfeed him, after which he stopped crying immediately.
Since being posted, the photo has gone viral garnering over a lakh in shares and hundreds of comments praising her ‘heroic’ actions.
Her name has been turned into a twitter hashtag as well.
It turns out that Ayala’s act of kindness did not go unnoticed. The word spread and even reached the ears of the vice president of the legislature of Buenos Aires, Cristian Ritondo, who promoted her from police officer to sergeant for her “gesture of spontaneous love.”
“Today we received Celeste… to notify her of her promotion. We wanted to thank you in person for the gesture of spontaneous love that managed to calm the baby’s cry,” he wrote in a tweet on August 17.
The Bomberos Voluntarios Berisso fire brigade, too wrote a post to congratulate and praise her. Ayala volunteers there.
Taking to social media, they wrote, “Actions like that of this cadet fill us with pride and force us to redouble our efforts, and work in solidarity with our community.”
