Salma Hayek has shocked Hollywood by breastfeeding a stranger's baby on a visit to Sierra Leone.
Hayek, 42, was touring a hospital in the war-torn country when she found a mother unable to feed her infant.
Without hesitation, the Mexican-born actress began feeding the baby boy in front of TV cameras for US current affairs program Nightline.
'The baby was perfectly healthy, but the mother did not have any milk," Hayek said.
"He was very hungry … I was weaning my [one-year-old] daughter Valentina, but I still had a lot of milk, so I breastfed the baby."
The Wild Wild West star and UNICEF spokesperson told reporters that she was inspired by her great-grandmother who once performed a similar act in a Mexican village.
"They found a woman in the street inconsolably crying and the baby was also crying, crying, crying," she said.
"My great-grandmother went up to her and said 'What is the matter?' and the mother said, 'She is very, very hungry and I have no more milk'.
"And in the street, my great-grandmother took the baby and breastfed that baby who instantly stopped crying and went peacefully to sleep.
"It was amazing [that I could do the same] because I was really impressed by [her] story."
In November, Hayek joked that she was addicted to breastfeeding.
"I'm like an alcoholic. It is like, I don't care if I cry, I don't care if I am fat, I am just going to do it for one more week, one more month, and then when I see how much good it is doing her and I can't stop," she said.
Sierra Leone, located in West Africa, has the highest child death rate in the world. Twenty percent of children die before reaching their fifth birthday.
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link to news.ninemsn.com.au]
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