This Argentinian police officer is being praised for her maternal kindness after she was seen breastfeeding a hungry crying baby at a hospital.

Officer Celeste Jaqueline Ayala was working as a guard at the Sor Maria Ludovica children's hospital in Buenos Aires when she heard an infant crying.

When she ran to find the source of the wailing, she found that the cries were coming from a baby boy who had been taken into custody by police.

Since the hospital staff already had their hands full with other patients, Ayala asked if she could hold and feed the baby.

Despite the boy being described by the employees as "dirty and smelly", the officer insisted on helping the infant anyway.

"I noticed that he was hungry, as he was putting his hand into his mouth, so I asked to hug him and breastfeed him," Ayala told Cronica of her deed. "It was a sad moment, it broke my soul seeing him like this."

As she lovingly cradled the baby, an onlooker named Marcos Heredia snapped a photo of the powerful moment and posted it to social media where it has since been shared thousands of times. The officer didn't mind the exposure at all, and in the end it benefitted her, too.

"I want to make public this great gesture of love that you had today with that baby," wrote Heredia. "You did not care about the dirt and the smell as the professional gentlemen of the hospital said. Things like that are not seen every day."

The security department for which Ayala works made a Twitter post earlier this week saying that - in light of her kindness and integrity - they promoted her from officer to sergeant, saying that she was the kind of "police we're proud of" and "the police we want."

Share The Inspiring Story Of Compassion With Your Friends - Photo by Marcos Heredia