WAGGA mother Katie Finch is calling for more flexibility for breastfeeding mums after receiving a parking ticket because she overstayed a one-hour limit in the Sturt Mall.
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Mrs Finch parked her Suzuki sedan in a parking space designated for customers with prams near Kmart on September 20 before going shopping.
Before she could get back to her car, Mrs Finch's seven-week-old daughter, Rose, began crying for a feed and Mrs Finch took her to a baby feeding room in the mall.
When she got back to her car, Mrs Finch was dismayed to find she had been booked by a Wagga City Council ranger for overstaying the one-hour limit by 11 minutes.
In Wagga Local Court this week, Mrs Finch pleaded guilty to the offence, but through her solicitor, Shannon Pennicott, asked that the matter be proven but dismissed under Section 10(1)(a) of the Crimes (Sentencing Procedure) Act.
Magistrate Megan Greenwood accepted the submission, saying there was a shortage of parking in Wagga and it was difficult for new mothers.
However, Ms Greenwood also said the shortage made it important that drivers surrender spaces within the time limit.
Mrs Finch today called for longer times in parking spaces set aside for babies in prams, and more of them because of the unpredictable nature of when infants demand to be fed.
"She is probably the best baby in the world, but when she is hungry she really cries," Mrs Finch said of little Rose.
"(This day) she just woke up and started bawling.
"I had to go and feed her, I had no choice, and I did not want to feed her in the car.
"I came straight out after I finished feeding her."
Mrs Finch unsuccessfully appealed to council and the State Debt Recovery Office to waive the fine, so she took her battle to court.
"She pleaded her case to the (council) rangers; they basically dismissed it and said good luck at court," Ms Pennicott told the magistrate.
In Mrs Finch's corner was the Wagga branch of the Australian Breastfeeding Association, which said in a letter handed up to Ms Greenwood that it was not uncommon for young babies to take up to an hour to finish a feed and it was also not uncommon for young babies to require feeding more than once in a three-hour period.
"It is a baby's human right to be fed when they are hungry, and Katherine was only meeting her baby's immediate needs, as any mother would," the association said.
Mrs Finch said the association, of which she is a member, was considering writing to the appropriate authority asking for improved parking for young families.
