Male Flight Attendant Makes Breastfeeding Mom Feel Humiliated on a Flight, Sparks Outrage

Flying solo with a baby deserves a medal—or at least an upgrade and an endless supply of tasty treats. Between diaper duty in tiny bathrooms and bottle-juggling midair, moms face enough turbulence without weird crew antics.

But for one Reddit mom, her business class trip nosedived into awkward territory when a male flight attendant decided to turn her attention in a way that unsettled both her and fellow passengers.

In a world where public breastfeeding is legally protected in many places, the stigma surrounding it somehow still thrives—especially in enclosed, hyper-social spaces like airplanes. For many women, nursing in public is not just a physical necessity but an emotional tightrope: they must care for their child while bracing for unsolicited stares, judgment, or even interference.

According to multiple studies, a significant percentage of mothers report feeling anxious or exposed when breastfeeding outside their homes, despite laws designed to protect them. The discomfort often stems not from the act itself, but from how others react to it—with everything from awkward silence to outright confrontation.

Air travel, with its cramped quarters, surveillance-like environment, and unpredictable crew responses, becomes a pressure cooker for these anxieties. And when a flight attendant—a person in a position of authority—oversteps boundaries in such a moment, the emotional impact multiplies: it’s not just about the baby anymore. It’s about bodily autonomy, consent, and the right to feed your child without fear of humiliation.

Unfortunately, for one mother, these concerns turned from abstract to painfully real. Here’s what happened.

A new mom was traveling by plane with her baby.

A woman, who went under the username Brilliant_Release829 on Reddit, recently posted about her outstanding experience while flying with one of the famous airlines.

She wrote, “I was flying solo with my 7-month-old baby on British Airways two days ago, and my male flight attendant completely crossed a line.

Before takeoff, I told him my baby would be falling asleep around 6:30 PM, and that I might be nursing her during meal service. He responded rudely that there was no option to serve me later. I said I was totally fine skipping the meal if needed.”

The situation escalated quickly.

The OP wrote, “But when the meal service came, I was lying down nursing my baby under a nursing cover with my head under the cover to see her (I’ve you’ve been there, you understand). The flight attendant touched my leg to get my attention (he did this several times throughout the flight while I was laying with her, and it made me uncomfortable every time).

And when I stuck my hand out and gestured that I was busy, he lifted my nursing cover up! Fully exposing both of my breasts and my baby. Just to ask if I wanted my meal.”

The woman felt uncomfortable and exposed, to say the least.

The woman wrote, “I felt shocked, angry, and violated. I think it’s important to note that I was in Business Class, so I was fully laying down with her next to me. So when he lifted it up, he was towering over me and got a full view of everything. It was horrible.

I can’t believe they don’t do some sort of sensitivity training around traveling moms with infants, or is this guy just crazy?!

I immediately wrote to the airline company after the flight, but all I got was a generic, copy-paste response. This felt like such a violation of my body and privacy while I was breastfeeding my baby. Am I right to be freaking out a little here?”

People of Reddit rushed to the comments section to express their vivid opinions about the situation.

One person wrote, “Great that you wrote to the company, but I would be doing some serious Internet sleuthing to find a phone number that I can call and talk to a real person about this. That is unacceptable in every sense of the word, and someone absolutely needs to hear about this.
And as a side note, there is totally an option for you to be served a meal later than the rest of the cabin. I’ve been on many flights in my life where that happened under other circumstances.”

Another user said, “I can’t imagine where it could be acceptable to do this to a nursing mother. I have travelled alone with a baby/baby+toddler, and I have to say that flight attendants ranged from extremely empathic and attentive (often those who were mothers of young kids themselves) to clueless insensitive people who did not understand how extremely challenging the logistics were for me.
Anyways, this is horrifying and he needs to hear about it. I would not let this go!”

One more person commented, “Yes, this is so inappropriate that this falls under the category of common sense and should not require training. If he had an ounce of empathy, he would have saved you a plate (assuming he knew what you wanted for the meal) instead of lifting your nursing cover.
Not saying that economy class doesn’t deserve this courtesy, but you did buy business class tickets, which if he was in charge of serving on that day meant he wasn’t dealing with as many passengers.”

Let’s be real: not everyone’s thrilled to be trapped in a flying metal tube with a crying baby. Some folks grit their teeth, others throw on noise-canceling headphones, and a few just start silently planning their child-free future. But credit where it’s due — some parents actually try to be considerate. In fact, there are moms and dads out there who even teach their toddlers to say sorry for the chaos.

And then there are Ava’s parents — who decided to take it up a notch and have their five-month-old baby deliver an apology. Yes, she’s barely out of the womb, but apparently never too young for a PR strategy. Her mom, Hannah Chestnut, posted the clip online, and boom — four million views later, the internet had opinions, but they were quite controversial.