Luckiest baby in Africa

Salma Hayek breastfeeds a stranger's baby in Africa after the mother runs out of milk

By Simon Cable

The typical Hollywood superstar may be surrounded by fawning flunkeys who do absolutely everything for them.

But Salma Hayek, it seems, is cast in a different mould.

Touring a hospital in war-torn Sierra Leone, the 42-year-old actress came across a mother who was unable to provide milk for her malnourished one-week-old son.

Feeding time: Salma Hayek breastfeeds a stranger's baby after he starts to get hungry

Without hesitation, Miss Hayek took the stranger's baby and began breastfeeding it, despite the presence of several camera crews from American news network ABC, who were accompanying her on the African charity mission.

Mexican-born Miss Hayek, who at the time was breastfeeding her own one-year-old daughter, said: 'The baby was perfectly healthy, but the mother did not have any milk.

'He was very hungry  -  I was weaning my daughter Valentina, but I still had a lot of milk, so I breastfed the baby.

'It was amazing because he was really looking at me and he's very little. My baby is one year so he can suck a lot harder.'

Helping hand: The actress cradles the child as she sits beside the baby's mother

Hunger: Hayek has a one-year-old baby daughter who she is weaning

Miss Hayek, who has starred on screen alongside George Clooney and Colin Farrell, was signed up as a spokesman for Unicef last year.

Her trip was organised to help raise awareness of tetanus in Sierra Leone, the country with the highest rate of infant mortality in the world.

After the breastfeeding incident, she admitted she'd had mixed feelings. 'I thought about it,' she said.

Proud mother: Salma with her daughter Valentina and in glamour mode (right)

'Am I being disloyal to my child by giving my milk away? I actually think my baby would be very proud to be able to share her milk.

'When she grows up, I will make sure she continues to share and be a caring and generous person.'

Wetnursing, or cross-feeding, was common practice at the beginning before the Second World War until the introduction of artificial milk.

Miss Hayek said that she had been inspired by a story of her great-grandmother.

She said: 'My great-grandmother was in a Mexican village and they found a woman in the street who was inconsolably crying and the baby was also crying.

'My great-grandmother asked what the matter was and the mother said, 'She is very, very hungry and I have no more milk'.

'And in the street, my great-grandmother breastfed that baby who instantly stopped crying and went peacefully to sleep. I was really impressed by that story.'