Here's What Happened When a Policewoman Breastfed a Child During Rescue Operations After a Hurricane

Natural disasters bring death and devastation but among those tragic tales, there are stories of rare courage and kindness that come as a ray of hope in the gloomy aftermath. When Hurricane Otis made landfall in Southern Mexico in October 2023, the category 5 hurricane took the lives of about 52 people and many were reported missing. As the Acapulco region of Mexico suffered billions of dollars worth of damage, children were mostly left vulnerable. In the midst of all the chaos, one policewoman performed her duty as a mother while helping people affected by the calamity.

According to The Washington Post, 33-year-old Mexican police officer Arizbeth Dionisio Ambrosio was out on duty and was busy removing fallen trees, light poles, and cars along with her peers when she heard a baby crying. Being a mother of two children, Ambrosio could not ignore the wailing sound and eventually found a woman holding an infant. “I focused on the baby and asked her how could we help her,” Ambrosio told the news outlet. Ambrosio did not know if the woman was the baby boy's mother or aunt but she informed Ambrosio that the baby was possibly hungry.

Luckily, Ambrosio was breastfeeding her 1-year-old baby back at home during that period and she asked the other lady if she could try to feed the crying infant. “‘Well, if you could do this, please go ahead,’” the woman said, according to Ambrosio. “When you are in a situation like that, you do not think whether to help or not,” Ambrosio mentioned. “When she gave me the baby, I remembered my two children at home. I felt peace because I was with the baby giving him what he needed at the moment.” After nursing the baby, the woman thanked Ambrosio as she grabbed her helmet, first-aid kit, and other tools to join her unit in the search and rescue operation.

That was the last time the policewoman met the baby but a few days later, she was summoned to the headquarters of Mexico police where Pablo Vázquez Camacho, the top official of the city’s police, enquired about her encounter with the baby. Then Camacho informed Ambrosio that she had been awarded a promotion for her act of kindness and she had become a "subofficial" from "policia primera."

“For her vocation of service to the citizens and for raising the name of Policía Ciudad de México, my colleague Arizbeth Dionisio Ambrosio from the #Zorros Group, who protected the life of a baby in #Acapulco, was promoted,” Camacho wrote on a Facebook post. “Her work is an example of #humanism for all.” But for Ambrosio, it wasn't an act of kindness or anything specifically noble or heroic. “It was what I needed to do and I did it,” said Ambrosio, adding that her job often requires her to be attuned to people in distress. “It’s in those situations where you meet children, adults, people that — more than an object — need someone who will listen to them,” she told the outlet.

In a similar story, another policewoman from Argentina went viral as well after a photo of her breastfeeding a neglected baby went viral, per The New York Times. Celeste Ayala was among a team of officers who had shifted six young siblings into state custody in La Plata, Buenos Aires, and the 7-month-old baby was the youngest among them. When the baby started crying at the hospital they were taken to, Ayala didn't hesitate to seek permission from the hospital staff to breastfeed the baby. Her kindness toward the infant was rewarded with a promotion as well.