Police officer breastfeeds quake orphans

JIANGYOU, China, May 22 (UPI) -- A Chinese police officer, who is the mother of a baby, has become a national heroine for breastfeeding infants separated from their mothers by the earthquake.

Jiang Xiaojuan continues to feed two babies for women whose milk stopped from the trauma of the earthquake or the physical difficulties immediately afterwards, CNN reported. At her busiest, she was feeding nine.

"I am breastfeeding, so I can feed babies," she said. "I didn't think of it much. It is a mother's reaction and a basic duty as a police officer to help."

One newspaper hailed her as "China's Mother No. 1." But she says everyone in the quake zone tried to do what they could to help those who were injured, orphaned or left homeless.

The official death toll for the May 12 7.9-magnitude earthquake is 51,000 with about 29,000 people missing. Thousands of children are believed to have been orphaned.

Jiang's own son is being cared for by his grandparents while the earthquake emergency lasts.