She asked if she could hold the child—and, noticing that no one was able to feed him at the moment, offered to breastfeed the baby herself.
“It was a sad moment. It broke my soul seeing him like that,” she said.
Her act of kindness was witnessed by Marcos Heredia, a bystander who captured a photo of Ayala breastfeeding the child. He later shared the image online with a heartfelt message praising her selflessness.
“You did not care about the dirt and the smell,” Heredia wrote. “That’s a gesture of love that isn’t seen every day.”
Hoy recibimos a Celeste, la oficial que amamantó a un bebé en el Hospital de Niños de #LaPlata para notificarle su ascenso. Queríamos agradecerle en persona ese gesto de amor espontáneo que logró calmar el llanto del bebé. La policía que nos enorgullece, la policía que queremos. pic.twitter.com/8aBp0Xj4Zj
— Cristian Ritondo (@cristianritondo) August 17, 2018