16 August 2023 , 10:16
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Breastfeeding is different for every woman. Some may want to, some don't and it's up to every new mother how they decide to feed their newborn baby. But how would you react if you saw someone else breastfeeding your baby? A stunned mum shared the moment she saw her own sister breastfeeding her newborn, and is wondering whether she was wrong to call the police on her.
It all started when the 22-year-old mum and her 27-year-old sister had babies two weeks apart. Asking her sister to look after her son whilst she had to go into hospital, she was astonished to find her sister breastfeeding her son, and had admitted to throwing out all of her formula milk, branding it 'garbage'.
The babies, who are three and five weeks old, were both being breastfed by the sister, leaving there no other food options but the breastmilk. Furious, the mum called the police on her sister but now wonders if she was a little harsh. Sharing her situation on Reddit, she wrote: "I'm 22 and my sister is 27. We had babies within two weeks of each other, and our sons are now three and Five weeks old. Her son is breastfed and mine is not.
"I needed to get surgery recently, and because my son's father isn't around, my sister and [brother-in-law] offered to babysit my son while I was in the hospital (three days total) free of charge. When I came home today, I walked into my son on my sister's breast, which I actually didn't have an issue with, to begin with.
"It was probably easier to [breastfeed] him than make bottles but she told me after she had thrown out all of the 'garbage' I was feeding him and she was going to pump and donate milk to him. I was kind of in shock so I didn't react straight away but I went to the bathroom and called the police on her.
Baby boy has spent his life in hospital as doctors are 'scared' to discharge him
"Apparently what she did wasn't a crime, and the child is being fed so they couldn't even do anything about it. My sister then blew up at me, saying it was completely wrong of me to call the police on her when she was just trying to help, I told her she dumped 14 cans of formula without even consulting me and currently had nothing to replace it with, just plans to.
"She now wants me to pay her for the babysitting she did but I told her I can't even afford to replace the formula while I'm on maternity leave so I won't be paying her for the babysitting. She ended up storming out and blocked me on everything. Our parents were able to replace two of the cans she threw out but can't do much else. They also think I was a d**k for calling the police on her because getting a record could affect her government job and therefore my Nephew. aita?"
Asking others online if she's the a**hole for doing this, she was faced with a mixed reaction. Some users are in support of her and think it's wrong, whereas others think she was a little extreme. One Redditor wrote: "I think the sister is evil. 'I was only trying to help,' no she was only trying to control her sister, and how she raises her child, and when her property destruction which directly affects the health of the child was not well received she became vindictive."
Whereas another commented: "She just literally dumped hundreds of dollars of formula that YOU BOUGHT because of her own personal opinions on formula. I would have done the same thing, in your situation," but another wasn't so sure as they said: "I'm frankly shocked at the amount of people that think it's ok to call the authorities over something so minor. Yes, sister is an a**hole but calling the police?"