A new mum was devastated after a stranger pulled over her car to tell her she was parenting wrong.
Libby Page was pushing month-old son Robin in his pram near their home in Frome, Somerset, when the woman confronted her.
The 29-year-old was also being accompanied by her friend on what was a sunny day and was told the baby was 'clearly too warm'.
Libby had experienced a traumatic birth and had been feeling low as she struggled to build a bond with her baby before finding the confidence to take him out.
She has warned that unsolicited, passive-aggressive advice is not helpful, particularly to new mums who may be suffering post-natal depression.
Have you suffered similar confrontations to Libby? Let us know at webnews@mirror.co.uk
"I’m so glad I was with my friend because if I was on my own I probably would have burst into tears and gone immediately home again," she told the Mirror.
"It had taken us two hours to get out of the house.
"It is a big thing to be getting out, then just having that experience of someone doubting your parenting.
"People say these things but don’t necessarily think about the impact of the mother and it knocks the confidence."
Libby - a fiction author, originally from London - had waited for the heatwave to clear before taking Robin out one day at the end of July and said the afternoon in question was mild.
She'd seen the woman's car prior to the incident going the opposite direction and assumes she must have seen her and turned round before pulling up and leaping out.
"I think it was just the fact she had no context, that for a moment I put a muslin cloth over [the pram], which was porous, I had the sides open," she said.
"I’m checking him constantly, there was no way he could’ve got too hot. She glimpsed a second of my parenting and had just made a huge judgement and felt like she knew what was best."
Libby said it was her first experience of a stranger feeling the need to give her advice since giving birth, but has spoken to other mums who have had similar encounters.
"It started in pregnancy, as soon as you’re visibly pregnant you start getting unsolicited advice. I think during pregnancy I was better able to shake it off," she explained.
"I think people do mean well, but for me it was the way it came across, this stranger who couldn’t even see my baby. She was on the other side of the road.
"I am checking the baby all the time, as most parents would, you are so attentive to your own baby.
"But the thought that a stranger would know what’s best for them when you are looking after them all day is difficult and not really true."
Libby said new mums need reassurance from fellow parents because they are already full of doubts about what they are doing.
"As a new mum, advice can be super helpful when I ask for it.
"I ask for loads of advice from mum friends, from my own mum, pregnancy group and when you have a specific question it can be amazing to get that help.
"But when it’s unwanted it can feel patronising and undermining your role as a parent."
She added: "I think even this woman thought that’s her good deed for the day ticked off.
"She’s given some helpful advice to a new mother but actually it was not really accurate."
Libby went on to say it is also concerning that as soon as someone gives birth "boundaries seem to drop away" and mums have to deal with such confrontations.
"I didn’t realise people felt they could just come up to you, complete strangers and give you advice," she said.
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