Briar McQueen, a 22-year-old mother from Mount Maunganui, New Zealand, was recently dining at a local cafe with her son. Jaxon, Briar’s 8-week-old son, decided he was hungry too and began to cry for his mother to feed him. This presented an interesting situation for McQueen as she had never publicly breastfeed before.
Crying baby in hand, the mother knew she had to nourish her child. Well aware of the stigma of feeding in public, McQueen admits that she was apprehensive: “I hear so many stories of mothers being verbally attacked and judged for breastfeeding in public,” she said in an interview with TODAY. “I never really fed in public myself. I would usually go back to my car but because I had my food and hot chocolate already there, that wasn’t an option.”
Source: Briar McQueen
She began to publicly breastfeed for the first time, though, she did so as inconspicuously as possible. Suddenly, an older woman stood up from her seat and approached the nursing mother. “I automatically assumed she was going to tell me to cover up more or make a negative comment about me exposing my breast in public,” McQueen said.
To her surprise, the elderly woman came to aid her. She gladly began to cut up her food so that Briar could focus on breastfeeding her baby. In an exclusive email interview with TODAY, McQueen said,” She was taking care of me the same way my mother would. She made me feel so comfortable and accepted, that’s why I just wanted to cry, especially because of the way everyone else looked and smiled at what she was doing.”
The kindhearted and caring gesture led to Briar sharing the touching story via social media. She posted the following pictures:
Source: Briar McQueen
In the caption of her post, McQueen wrote, “Today was the first time I went out for breakfast alone with my 8-week-old son. I had just received my breakfast and hot chocolate when Jaxon started crying wanting his booby so of course I fed him. After a few minutes this older lady walked up to me. I was scared, thinking she was gonna tell me to put my boob away. Instead she starts cutting up my breakfast for me and said, ‘What a good mama you are, we can’t have your food getting cold can we.'”
Read more about Briar’s experience and her inspiring message to nursing mothers everywhere by clicking next!
It’s rare that kind acts like this make headlines, especially when it’s a simple act like cutting up someone’s food. However, the support that is being extended to breastfeeding mothers continues to grow. Perhaps the stigma against breastfeeding publicly is finally no more.
“I thanked her over and over and began to well up and had to fight back tears. She had no idea how much that meant to me! She genuinely thinks nothing of what she did,” she added. “That’s what makes her good deed so pure and selfless.”
Amazing breastfeeding stories like this are the reason for such strong support for mothers on a global scale. We hope this story (and others) inspires you to pay it forward and to always be supportive of nursing mothers!
“I would love nothing more than for people (male or female) when they see a mother or father struggling in public to jump straight in without hesitation or fear of rejection and just help!” McQueen told TODAY. “Whether it be helping load groceries into the car or pushing the shopping cart around the supermarket, anything really, our automatic reaction should be to help one another without a second thought, and we need to raise our children to do this too by setting an example.”
If you have any insights, questions or comments regarding the topic, please share them with us!