A 49-year-old grandmother has revealed she breastfed two of her grandchildren without asking their parents first, and provided expressed milk for a third. Jane McNeice said that while some may find her actions 'controversial' or 'odd', her partner and family support her.
McNeice told The Daily Mail that she began helping with formula feeds for her granddaughter Evie in 2012 after her daughter Laura struggled to breastfeed. When Evie was 19 months old, she accidentally drank expressed breast milk meant for McNeice's son Oliver. Laura laughed it off, and they agreed it was beneficial.
Later, when McNeice was watching her granddaughter Bella and had just finished feeding her own four-month-old son Ben, she breastfed Bella without asking Laura. Laura was not bothered. McNeice went on to breastfeed Bella and her sister Violet several more times while babysitting.
However, when McNeice confided in a friend, the friend called it 'disgusting', and their friendship ended. McNeice said she is not ashamed but decided not to tell others after that.
The grandmother noted that wet nursing was common before the 19th century, and cited Penny Lancaster, who donated breast milk to her stepdaughter's baby in 2011.
