Jessica-Anne Allen, owner of Cheese and Biscuits in Rockhampton, Queensland, received praise on social media when she asked a man to leave her cafe who complained about a woman breastfeeding in public.
The middle-aged gentleman suggested that she ask the woman to cover up, Brisbane Times reported.
When she refused to do it and told him that they are a breastfeeding-friendly cafe, the man approached the woman and told her himself, which embarrassed the young mother. Allen then politely asked the man to leave.
"We told him that we are a breastfeeding friendly cafe, that we have mothers' groups and ladies who come and breastfeed all the time," she said, Huffington Post reported. "We would never ask a mother to cover up when she is feeding her child."
"I have a sister who has a three month old and I would hate to think that something like that was said to her," she added.
On Facebook, Allen wrote: "Cheese and Biscuits Cafe would like to reiterate that we are a breast feeding friendly cafe. We do not in anyway believe that to breast feed a baby is anything to be ashamed of and we will not ask customers to cover up. We would appreciate it if you would respect our choice and not ask our customers to cover up yourselves. We were mortified this morning when someone asked us to say something to the young mother, when we politely declined and informed the customer that we were breast feeding friendly, they then took it upon themselves to say something. As you can imagine we politely asked the offending customer to leave, but it still left the young mother embarrassed. It was a situation that did not have to arise at all. Cheese and Biscuits Cafe supports breast feeding mothers and we will not tolerate any bias towards them."
The cafe owner, as well as the cafe, received positive feedback after the incident.
According to Mashable, a movement to de-stigmatize breastfeeding in public has gained momentum when Australian supermodel Nicole Trunfio appeared on the cover of Elle Australia breastfeeding her son Zion.
The topic of breastfeeding was trending on Twitter with the hashtag #NormalizeBreastfeeding.
