An aunt sparked an online discussion about wet nursing by sharing a photo showing her breastfeeding her sister's baby.
Meg Nagle, a lactation consultant and blogger, shared the selfie on her Facebook page The Milk Meg on Monday 21 March.
"My gorgeous little nephew," she wrote. "While my sister was at work today I tried to give him a bottle of her expressed milk a few times (which he wouldn't take).
"I could see he was tired so I popped him on the boob and voila, he was asleep in minutes."
Nagle is a mum-of-three and she is still breastfeeding her youngest son, who is four years old, once a day.
She reassured commenters she had asked her sister's permission before allowing her nephew to latch on.
“Breast was last resort because I basically have no milk left,” she said.
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Before long other mothers started commenting on Nagle's photo to share their experiences of milk sharing.
Courtney Chameleon wrote: "My sister gave birth to my beautiful nephew nearly four years ago now. She was exhausted in hospital and he wasn't quite latching, and she actually asked me 'Please! Just feed him!'.
"I felt so honoured to give him his first decent feed as a freshy and to help my poor sister get some much needed rest! Will never forget it. Bonding through boob juice."
Crystal Taylor said she would do anything necessary to take care of her twin sister's children: "I've nursed my niece and my twin has nursed my son. If it's anything like me and my sister it's been discussed before that we will do what's necessary to take care of the littles."
Jamie Sue Faris has milk shared with a woman who she isn't related to.
"My bestie and I have nursed each others littles," she wrote. "It's a special bond and has come in handy when I was in labour and when she was having latch issues but couldn't explain the issue."
Nicole Elizabeth Hughes-Miller, who has nursed nursed four of her sister's kids concluded: "Milk's milk! They don't care... why should we?"
