Woman asks if she was wrong to breastfeed friend's baby without permission.

As the saying should go, no good mom goes unpunished. A new mom shared her story on Reddit about how she offered to take care of her best friend's baby, despite having a new baby herself, to help the friend who is suffering from postpartum depression.

She ended up having to breastfeed her friend's baby herself when she realized the friend had not left her with any formula and wouldn't respond to her calls or texts. When the friend finally returned, she yelled at the woman and then proceeded to talk sh*t about her online. What a mess.

The woman explains that her BFF, who gave birth to her first child about eight weeks ago, has been 'disconnected' from her baby, in part because she has been suffering from postpartum depression and also because she 'never wanted kids.'

My best friend of ten years gave birth to her first child about eight weeks ago. She never wanted kids and she disconnected from her pregnancy and never really connected to the baby after he was born either. She has really bad postpartum depression so I've been trying to help, however I gave birth to my second child about two weeks after she had her baby so I'm needed at home with my family.

The woman kindly offered to give her friend some respite by taking care of her baby for a day, despite having a 6-week-old newborn herself.

I could tell she was getting stressed so I offered to take the baby for a day so she could have downtime. She brought him over and we put the babies together. Her son has a really bad digestion problem so he can't ingest regular formula, only breastmilk or special formula.

She doesn't breastfeed so he takes the special formula. I asked her if she had packed diapers, wipes, a change of clothes, and bottles in his diaper bag and she said yes. Then she left.

The friend's baby has a 'bad digestion problem' and can only ingest breastmilk or special formula. But when the baby got hungry and needed to be fed, the woman realized her friend had not packed his special formula.

For the first three hours everything was fine, the babies chilled out together, we all played, I put on some music and danced around for them. My baby needed a feed so I fed her and then about thirty minutes later Best Friend's baby needed a feed. I went to fix him a bottle and realized she hadn't packed his formula.

When I asked if she had packed bottles she answered literally, but I never specified if she packed formula as well, I thought it was given. *My baby is exclusively on breastmilk right now and everything I have is frozen and it takes time for frozen milk to unfreeze.

After texting her and calling her four times and it going to voicemail, the baby was 'crying and screaming.' The woman was unable to take both babies to the store, so she was left with no choice but to breastfeed him herself.

I tried calling her about four times and she kept sending me to voicemail so I text her. She had read receipts on so I know she saw my texts. I kept trying to call and she just wouldn't answer me. I couldn't go to the store and get a jar of formula because she didn't leave me his car seat and I only had my infant's seat.

My older child is seven and doesn't need an infant seat anymore. I don't know my neighbors and other than my husband I don't have family in the area. At this point the baby was crying and screaming so hard I thought he might get sick or hurt. So I sat down and breastfed him myself.

When her friend finally returned, she 'freaked out' at her for breastfeeding her kid. To make things worse, she blocked her on social media before saying 'awful things' about her online.

I'm completely healthy, just got a flu shot and a clean bill of health from both my OB and my GP and I have no diseases so the baby was not at risk for anything. Best Friend finally returned three and a half hours later.

I remained calm but told her that she can't leave her child with someone and not answer when that person calls and texts because it might actually be a serious emergency; and that she also hadn't packed any of the baby's special formula. I told her how badly he got upset and how worried I was so I breastfed him myself. She freaked out on me and accused me of some horrible things and then left.

She blocked me on social media, something I learned when a mutual friend told me Best Friend was saying some awful things about me online. I don't know what to do, I can't even talk to her about this. I thought I was doing the right thing but maybe I was wrong. AITA?

The woman, who 'thought she was doing the right thing,' took to Reddit to ask others to weigh in on whether she was wrong to breastfeed her friend's kid in this 'emergency' situation.

Most commenters agree that if anyone is the a**hole in this story, it's most definitely the mom who left her baby with a friend with no food then yelled at her for feeding it.

BigsChungi writes:

This story is wild. I'd honestly prefer this over starving my child. Your friend had a very odd reaction... NTA.

Many are pointing out, understandingly, that it sounds like this other mom is suffering from severe postpartum depression and subsequent mental health issues. So she may not be an 'a**hole' but she certainly needs help.

wetcardboardsmell writes:

You can worry and be upset, but your friend sounds like she is suffering from intense postpartum psychosis and, or, postpartum depression and anxiety. I can't imagine leaving my child with somebody and not checking my phone or not sending them with literally everything they need, food obviously for an infant with special dietary needs. Please dont take it personally.

Try really hard to know you did everything you could and you FED THE BABY which is the most important thing here. I'm sorry your friend is struggling. I hope she gets help. NTA.

RomulaFour agrees, writing:

Your friend has much bigger problems than being mad at you for breastfeeding her hungry child. Long ago many wealthy families hired a 'wetnurse' specifically to breastfeed and raise their babies and this was the norm. Hopefully your friend will get the help she needs and you can preserve your friendship, but there's nothing you did wrong here.

Others are praising the woman and saying they would be grateful to her for what she did to help the baby.

snoozywaifu writes:

If I was in such a bad place as your friend I would be beyond happy (well, ppd allowing) that my baby's needs were met- for food, nursing contact, and those sweet sweet immunoglobulins. I would also feel like even more of a piece of shit for not meeting those needs myself.

I'm sure she was just incapable of regulating those shitty shitty feelings. I guess maybe (because some people think wet nursing is weird) you could have pumped and bottle fed, but honestly I would have done the same thing. You're a great friend and a great nurturer.

And many are saying they would've done the same thing if they were in that situation.

PeskyStabber writes:

To be fair, by the time she finally took matters into her own hands (after calling the mom repeatedly, called SO and friends for help, etc), that baby was probably screaming his little lungs out wanting to eat. I would have taken the path of least resistance as well.

Every second it would have taken to pump is one more second having to listen to him holler w hunger. Not sure I would have had the fortitude to make him wait for pumped milk either.

Postpartum depression is no joke and hopefully this friend will get the help she needs. And when she does, hopefully she'll apologize to this woman and thank her for doing what needed to be done to keep the baby safe and fed.