Mom was struggling to breastfeed her child at a cafe — then a stranger passed a note that moved her to tears
A mom will often understand what another mom is going through, as they have experienced almost the same thing during the stages of motherhood. This feeling was experienced by a woman named Isabelle Ames (@isabellelisaames), who was struggling while breastfeeding her baby at a cafe one day. However, when a waitress handed over a note, the mom cried tears of joy. The waitress, Erica, slipped Ames a free pancake along with a note that left her overwhelmed with emotion. Ames posted a photo of the note on her private Instagram account, per HuffPost.
Ames was having breakfast at the Snooze An A.M. Eatery in Gilbert, Arizona, when Erica handed her the note. Ames shared she was feeling teary-eyed even as she shared the experience with people on the internet hours after it happened. It was a usual morning, where she was trying to "wrangle" a very active 10-month-old and trying to sip her coffee. "When Charlotte got hungry, I started breastfeeding her. It went okay, but it has been extra difficult lately." She added, "She has a total of 6 teeth now, and we have both been sick for a week." When her daughter was done breastfeeding, a waitress came over to the mom and told her, "'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'."
"Thank you for breastfeeding here! Much love and respect!" the note read. The moment Ames read the note, she couldn't control her tears and got up to give the waitress a big hug. The mom explained why the experience was more meaningful than one could think. "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." Ames had her fair share of struggles when she began breastfeeding her daughter Charlotte. She could only pump breastmilk for the first two weeks because of latch problems and was heartbroken because of that. For the next month or so, she could only do it with a nipple shield on. Finally, when her baby latched on without any help, the mom recounted crying tears of 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 that I screamed fifty curse words into a pillow." So, the note came at the perfect time for the mom. "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," Ames expressed. According to the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL), all fifty states in America, including the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, have laws that permit women "to breastfeed in any public or private location."