There are various ways a person can try to soothe a baby - from rocking them gently from side-to-side, to making sure they aren't hungry or need a nappy change.
However, one woman was left horrified after her mum-in-law went above what is appropriate in the hopes of calming her baby down.
Taking to Reddit, the mum explained that she had trusted her mum-in-law to babysit her newborn son while she ran errands for a few hours. However, when the baby started to get "cranky", the trusted family member had tried to "soothe him" by attempting to "breastfeed" - despite not lactating.
The upset woman explained that her partner's mum had "brought it up like it was the most normal thing ever" and she just "sat there in shock" after she told her, after which she started "nervous laughing".
The anonymous woman continued: "Then I told my husband when he came home and started crying. I feel horrified.
"She's definitely not babysitting anymore. I just really needed to rant. Like what the actual f**k."
The mum clarified that her mum-in-law "does not produce breastmilk" and "wasn't even trying to feed the baby".
Other forum users were aghast when they read the mum's story, deeming her in-law's behaviour "disgusting" and "inappropriate".
One person commented: "Anything anyone does involving someone else's child(ren) requires THOROUGH consent from parents!!!"
Another added: "What is wrong with people these days? This isn't the first post I've seen in the last month where another woman has tried breastfeeding a baby that wasn't theirs."
A third said: "Lactating or not - that's completely inappropriate for them to have done such a thing."
In a similar but separate case, a mum noticed her best friend secretly breastfeeding her 10-month-old baby during a wedding without permission.
On the same forum website, the mum said she had been left feeling "very shaken up" and like her own friend had "violated her daughter.
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