Facebook post sparks passionate discussion on wet-nursing

'Bonding through boob juice'

The photo attracted some criticism (Facebook/The Milk Meg)

A woman who breastfed her nephew and posted the photos to Facebook has sparked a discussion on wet nursing.

Australian Meg Nagle – also known as blogger The Milk Meg – decided to feed the child herself after he rejected bottled milk.

“I could see he was tired so I popped him on the boob and voila, he was asleep in minutes,” she said in the post.

However, the image set off a string of heated comments. Some responded positively, with one user commenting the pair were “bonding through boob juice". Another said: “I wouldn't care if my sister was baby-sitting and nursed my daughter. She is healthy and a non-smoker. Milk is milk. People drink cow’s milk.”

However, some disagreed with anyone but a child's biological mother breastfeeding a baby. One commenter wrote: “I personally get so anxious and angry inside just even thinking about someone else nursing my baby girl."

Ms Nagle has defended herself from criticism and said her sister knew about the event.

“He has had a difficult time transitioning to the bottle since my sister returned to work. Sometimes he will not take it or it can be really difficult to get him to take it,” she told Kidspot.

“I tried a couple of times to give him the bottle but he refused. I could see he was not hungry but really wanted to fall asleep. So I breastfed him and he was asleep in minutes.

“My sister and I had spoken about the possibility of me breastfeeding him if needed while she was at work and she was happy for me to do it.”

Ms Nagle defended the practice of informed and cautious wet-nursing more broadly, saying: "Wet-nursing has been happening forever and continues to happen around the world. "Most of us just don’t talk about it"