DES MOINES, Iowa (KCCI) – The action of an Iowa waitress is being celebrated by a community of mothers after she shared a special connection with a customer caring for her baby. The mother and her husband were out for pizza when the their one-year-old son got fussy. The mother then began to breastfeed at the table.
“I noticed the baby stopped crying and I kinda – like my ears kinda perked up and said ‘Well, I know why babies stop crying instantly,'” waitress Bodi Kinney said.
"I saw her notice me nursing and with my societal fears of being ostracized because of it, I instantly felt panic, like 'what is she thinking?' you know, 'is she not wanting me to do this here?'" recalled mother Jackie Johnson-Smith.
That was not the case. In fact Kinney, a mother herself, was pleased to see Johnson-Smith breastfeeding her child. So pleased in fact, she picked up the family's tab and left a note on their receipt that read: I bought your pizza. Thanks for breast-feeding.
"I read it several times, and tears started welling in my eyes, and I thought i can't believe that this just happened," said Johnson-Smith. "I think the reason that it went viral is just a true testament on how on how deeply nursing mothers want that acceptance for themselves. Women were telling me that they teared up when they read it. They were touched by it because they also want that affirmation that what they are doing is okay, what they're doing is accepted and they're not being judged for it."
