The mother of a 43-year-old woman who got a ticket after state police pulled her over for driving with a child in her lap and found her nursing, said her daughter is “embarrassed and feels awful.”
A driver who was found to be breast-feeding a child after she was pulled over by a state trooper Wednesday is “embarrassed and feels awful,” her mother says.
“She was in a hurry, and the baby was crying,” the woman’s mother said Thursday. “She knows it was wrong.”
She said her daughter promised her — and the State Patrol trooper — she wouldn’t do it again.
The 43-year-old Mountlake Terrace woman was stopped around 7 p.m. Wednesday driving north on Interstate 5 in Everett after someone called 911 to report a child sitting in a driver’s lap, said State Patrol spokesman Mark Francis.
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When the trooper approached the car, he could tell that the woman was breast-feeding, Francis said.
The woman told the trooper she was doing it — and had done it before — because her 1-year-old son screams uncontrollably when he’s hungry, Francis said.
“Needless to say, they had a lengthy talk about safety, parental responsibility and what can happen to the kid if he is between her and the steering wheel,” Francis said.
The woman was issued a $136 citation for a child-restraint violation, which was paid Thursday, court records show.
Court records also show the woman has a history of driving infractions, including using a cellphone while driving, speeding and following too closely.
The woman’s mother said her daughter is disabled and has only one child.
Francis said the trooper who stopped the nursing mother has referred her to Child Protective Services. “She made some comments that caused the trooper to question her judgment,” Francis said.
Child Protective Services did not immediately say whether an investigation into the family had been opened, but the driver’s mother said her daughter had not been contacted by the state child-welfare agency.