Breastfeeding in a public place can cause some mums anxiety, due to incidents of breastfeeding shaming and intolerant attitudes.

 

Mum Isabelle Ames was out for breakfast yesterday with her 10-month-old daughter Charlotte, when she realised Charlotte needed her feed.

 

Isabelle began to feed her, in between sips of coffee, but was finding it hard as they'd both been sick and Charlotte was teething. 

 

 

BB squirrel  I love this girl #momlife #coffeelover

A post shared by Isabelle Ames (@mrsalexanderames) on

 

So imagine her delight, when the waitress approached and gave her a free pancake.

 

"Here is a little note to explain why," Erica, the waitress told Isabelle.

 

She told me: "Us mommas gotta look out for each other," Isabelle revealed.

 

 

I am still teary eyed writing this hours later. While at breakfast this morning I was doing my usual thing- trying to wrangle a very active ten month old while trying get at least one sip of my coffee. When Charlotte got hungry, I started breastfeeding her. It went okay, but lately it's been extra difficult. She has a total of 6 teeth now, and we have both been sick for a week. When she finished, my server came over and said, "this pancake is from me, to you. Here is a little note to explain why." She then began to tell me how "us mommas gotta look out for each other". Instant tears. I gave this incredibly sweet stranger a hug and cried again. For those of you who don't understand why this is meaningful, I will put it into perspective. Breastfeeding is one of the hardest things I have done, next to labor. No one prepares you for it, but everyone expects you to be excellent at it. You feel like a complete failure when it doesn't happen right away. For the first two weeks after Charlotte was born, I could only pump and cry because I was so broken-hearted that I couldn't get her to latch. Then for the next 4 weeks, I could only breastfeed with a nipple shield. It was better than pumping but still not the same. It was not until about 6 weeks after she was born that she latched for first time and I was able to successfully breastfeed. I cried tears of relief and ecstatic joy. Even at 10 months old, it is still hard some days, without even talking about breastfeeding. I haven't slept in days because she is sick. I am beyond exhausted. Yesterday I got so frustrated I screamed fifty curse words into a pillow. That's #momlife some days. But for a complete stranger to see me, and say "thank you". I felt like she was there on my journey the whole time, and she knew how many times I wanted to give up but I didn't. So often, before I feed Charlotte in public I get a twinge of fear. "Okay, this is the time. Someone is going to harass me. They are going to yell at me. Someone is going to tell me I can't do this here." But not today. Today I got love, respect and a free pancake. Thank you to my fellow momma, Erica  #normalizebreastfeeding #lovewins

A post shared by Isabelle Ames (@mrsalexanderames) on

 

Isabelle was instantly moved to tears by the kind-hearted gesture.

 

She later posted the note to Instagram, explaining that she initially had difficulties breastfeeding, and found it to be one of the hardest things she'd ever done. 

 

What a beautiful gesture - there should be more people like Erica.

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