This happened in my town. I'm appalled and I've written to my local Member of Parliament.
Breastfeeding mother given parking ticketMARTIN WILLIAMS June 01 2007Breastfeeding support groups have condemned the actions of an attendant who fined a mother for parking in a restricted area to feed her child and then took photographs for proof.
The warden employed by a national car park management company confronted Jerricah Watson, 19, after she pulled into a permit holders-only bay in the Candle Lane area of Dundee to breastfeed her 14-week-old son Jaksyn.
Ms Watson pulled into the quiet street to get away from the city-centre traffic and said the warden initially said it was okay to feed her child. She said he then took photos and put a ticket on her car.
When she approached the attendant, from Birmingham-based Central Ticketing, which is responsible for policing the parking in the area, he said it was too late to withdraw the ticket. The penalty was for £85 or £60 if paid within two weeks.
"As I'm breastfeeding and therefore my son is fed on demand, I need to stop right away," she said.
"I feel with the government both locally and nationally trying to encourage mums to breastfeed that it was unfair of the man not to take that into account or even bother to ask me to move or give me a few minutes to feed my child."
It was unfair of the man not to give me a few minutes to feed my child
The incident has alarmed breastfeeding support groups who believe more should be done by government to allow babies to be fed naturally.
Gillian McWhirter, a Scottish breastfeeding support group adviser, said: "This is a very unfortunate situation. There is enough of a problem getting mothers to breastfeed because they are embarrassed to do it in public. But to not just give this woman a ticket but take pictures of her while she was in the car, is quite shocking.
"These kind of situations encourage ignorance over the importance of breastfeeding, which scientific evidence shows decreases the rate of infant illness.
"It is a basic right for a child to receive nutrition and every mother knows that when baby cries, baby has to be fed."
Thyll Buchanan, a registered Scottish breastfeeding network supporter, added: "Young mothers need all the help and support they can to continue to breastfeed. It is safer to pull over and feed a crying baby than to try and continue driving under stressful conditions."
Central Ticketing said it would cancel the ticket if an investigation into the mother's complaint found her story to be true. Part of the inquiry would involve examining pictures taken by the parking attendant.
"We will see if this woman's story stacks up, because the warden would have taken photographs and she would have been in the vehicle," said the spokesman.
"We issue thousands of parking charges a week. Fifty per cent of people send in an appeal. You have to bear in mind of every 10 letters we receive seven or eight of these members of the public are telling lies. We are not saying this woman is. This will be investigated."
Figures released last month show that fewer Scottish mothers are opting to breastfeed despite numerous government campaigns promoting the health benefits.
Last year, only 44.2% of mothers were breastfeeding at the time of a health worker's first visit when the baby is about 10 days old while 36.6% were doing so after six to eight weeks. That compares with 45.1% and 37.2% respectively in 2005.
thats horrible! im so glad we just had a law passed that makes sure you can breastfeed anywhere and not get in trouble!!!!
breastfeeding on demand does not mean you need to stop in a no parking zone, I breastfed on demand, but that doesn't give me the right to break other laws while doing it. I think it's shit that he took pictures, what a violation, but I do think she should have moved and not used excuses. It won't kill a child to cry for an extra 2 minutes while she finds a place that she is legally able to park and feed her child.
I didn't know people could get parking tickets while still in her car.. I don't think that happens here anyway. I agree that she could have found somewhere else to nurse.
It's the taking pics that pissed me off the most. And the fact that he told her she could breastfeed there and then gave her a ticket anyway.
wtf are kidding that jut so stupid i just dont know wat to say
agree with the pp's.....it wouldnt been hard for her to take an extra 2 min to stop in a place where she was legal allowed too....but the pictures of her is obsurd and ridiculous....
On the one hand yes, she could've found somewhere else to park. On the other hand, I don't know that area. Maybe she couldn't find anywhere else to park. It said she parked in a permit only area, now in Ohio I've been on campus at OSU where if you didn't have a permit, you were driving upwards of ten, fifteen, twenty minutes in high traffic to find somewhere to park. Add a crying baby to that traffic, and forget about it. I won't judge her for stopping in a situation like that. If it was an area with nearby public parking, that's another story.
She also said the cop told her it was okay, and afterward took pictures of her (which is completely disgusting). If he told her it was fine, and THEN took pictures and wrote a ticket, what is wrong with him? Is he trying to satisfy some quota? Police here have quotas of tickets (that is an issue that isn't written down or publicly discussed, but my father was a cop for many years and if you didn't write some undetermined "enough" amount of tickets, you were spoken to by your superiors for fear you were being lazy or sleeping on the job) and possibly that's what this guy was after.
The pictures really creep me out. Why would he have taken them? He couldn't just walk up and give her the ticket and tell her to move her car? The fact that he took pictures feels fishy to me, like he knew he'd have to prove it. Maybe because he told her it was okay, and that was her word against his.
in addition to my previous post, we also don't know how long the baby was crying before she came across a free spot that happened to be permit only. We're all assuming she just stopped her car the minute she heard a whimper. How long was she looking for a legal spot before she said "eff this!" and pulled over to make him happy?
The only places you can park around there are places you have to pay. The street she was in is pretty much deserted. The only people who drive down it are residents as it doesn't lead to anywhere but houses.
Maybe she couldn't afford to pay to park anywhere. That's what I'm guessing anyway.
The dude who ticketed her wasn't a cop, he was a traffic warden. Basically their only job is to issue parking tickets and as far as I know, they do need a quota.
thats totally unfair all around. Not only is it totally discusting of him to take pictures of her, lie telling her it was okay to park there and then still ticketing her, but how about common courtesy? Give the girl a break. I am sure that if he had asked her nicely to move and find somewhere else to stop and explained that if she didnt she would be ticketed, she would have gladly moved. If she had taken the spot from someone who WAS a permit holder or was causing trouble for other people by being parked there it would be a different story, but as far as i understand that definitely wasnt the case. I think its ridiculous.