The note from a waitress that brought a breastfeeding mum to tears.

A mother in the US has received a thank you note from a waiter after breastfeeding her 10-month-old baby in a restaurant.

“Thank you for breastfeeding here, much love and respect,” the handwritten note read. It came with a free serving of pancakes and the mother, Isabelle Ames, said the gesture brought her to tears.

“I am still teary-eyed writing this hours later,” she posted to Instagram alongside a photograph of the note.

“While at breakfast this morning I was doing my usual thing- trying to wrangle a very active 10-month-old while trying get at least one sip of my coffee.

She then began breastfeeding daughter Charlotte, who had become hungry.

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 Feb 28, 2017 at 10:49am PST

“When she finished, my server came over and said, ‘This pancake is from me, to you. Here is a little note to explain why.’ Instant tears. I gave this incredibly sweet stranger a hug and cried again,” Ames added.

Usually, it’s not so easy. First of all, there’s the challenge of breastfeeding itself.

“Breastfeeding is one of the hardest things I have done, next to labour. 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 wrote.

“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.

Rebecca Judd on walking in the Myer show with a breast pump in her bag

“It was not until about six 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.”

There’s the mothering in general.

“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,” Ames posted.

“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.”

Then there's the all-too-common reaction of others to a woman breastfeeding in public.

"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'," Ames wrote.

"But not today. Today I got love, respect and a free pancake. Thank you to my fellow mumma, Erica."

Proof that small moments, sweet gestures of kindness from one woman to another, can go a long, long way.