A policewoman in Argentina has been promoted after a photo of her breast feeding a neglected baby at a hospital while in uniform went viral.
The officer, Celeste Ayala, was among a team of officers who took six siblings into state custody in La Plata, a municipality near Buenos Aires, on August 14, because they were in dismal condition at home.
The youngest, who was about seven months old, was crying furiously. Ms. Ayala, who is breast-feeding a daughter 16 months old, said she sought permission from the hospital staff to breast-feed the baby.
“I didn’t doubt it for a second,” she told the Argentine television show “Cronica.” “So I pulled out my breast and he became calm.”
Marcos Heredia, a colleague, posted a photo of Ms. Ayala breast-feeding the boy on Facebook.
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“I want to make public this great gesture of love you had with this baby, whom you treated like a mother without a second thought, even though you didn’t know him,” Mr. Heredia wrote.
The post went viral, turning the small act of kindness into national news.
Cristian Ritondo, the minister of security for the Province of Buenos Aires, met with Ms. Ayala last week to inform her that she was being promoted to sergeant.
“We wanted to thank her in person for that spontaneous gesture of love that managed to quiet the baby’s crying,” he said on Twitter.
“This is the police force we are proud of, the police force we want.”
