Many people feel strongly about breastfeeding versus formula feeding. Some people believe breastfeeding is the best way to get a baby exactly the nutrients it needs to thrive. But not all mothers are always available for or able to breastfeed their newborn babies.
One Reddit user recently opened up about her decision to breastfeed her nephew due to some unforeseen circumstances. While the baby's father is on board, his mother — the baby's grandmother — is completely enraged and angry at the Reddit user, calling her "demonic."
The Reddit user shared that her sister has been in the hospital, unconscious, and has not even met her baby yet.
The Reddit user's husband is actually her sister's doctor, and suggested that she take some of the breast milk that she has been pumping for her twins and use it to feed the newborn baby until her sister wakes up and decides what type of feeding she would like to do.
She also said her brother-in-law, who moved in with them temporarily, supported the decision.
While she has been pumping to feed her nephew, she shared it has gotten "difficult."
"Pumping has been rather difficult because I also have to breastfeed my own kids (twin 11 month olds) and I thought it better to just feed my nephew directly from the breast as well because it saves me both time and pain," the woman wrote.
Both the husband and her brother-in-law supported her choice to directly breastfeed her nephew.
But when her brother-in-law's mother came to visit, things went south.
When her brother-in-law's mother came to see the baby, she immediately flipped out over the Reddit user breastfeeding the baby. She called the Reddit user names and said she was "disgusting and inhumane."
When the brother-in-law defended her, the grandmother "spat on the floor" and said that the Reddit user was "demonic." Following this, the brother-in-law threw his own mother out of the house and said she could not return until she apologized.
Many people online were shocked at the grandmother's behavior.
"First of all, if the father of the child is okay with it then that’s all you should care about. MIL is nuts, don’t listen to her," shared one Reddit user.
Many others felt that the sister was doing the right thing in a tragic situation, with others pointing out that she is being nothing more than a wet nurse and that people all over the world do this for their family and friends often.
But some said she should be prepared for her sister to possibly be upset.
"I do feel like you need to prepare for the fact that your sister might not feel good about it when she wakes up, for a lot of moms breastfeeding is very personal, and I'm not saying your doing a bad thing but she might react badly to the news," shared another Reddit user.
"Providing breast milk is one thing but actually breastfeeding is very personal and this mom has already missed so much due to her illness — if I woke up and someone else was bf my baby I’d be devestated," agreed another commenter on the post.
These stories are based on posts found on Reddit. Reddit is a user-generated social news aggregation, web content rating, and discussion website where registered members submit content to the site and can up- or down-vote the content. The accuracy and authenticity of each story cannot be confirmed by our staff.
