Thanks to Jennifer at the Black Breastfeeding Blog for this one. The Cleveland Plain Dealer reports:
A woman who was sentenced to three months house arrest in 2003 for breast feeding her infant while driving on the Ohio Turnpike successfully appealed her case Monday in Portage County court.
Catherine Donkers had been found guilty of three misdemeanor charges including failure to use a child restraint system. A State Highway Patrol trooper pulled her over in May 2003 near Ravenna after a trucker reported her to police.
Donkers had argued in her trial that she did not break any laws because breast feeding while driving is allowed in her home state of Michigan, and Ohio's child restraint law provides an exception to drivers from states that don't require restraint. Prosecutors argued that she could not have been feeding the baby the entire trip and so Michigan law didn't apply.
I just can't believe that anyone would try to breastfeed a baby while driving a car, legal or not. And I'm astounded that it's legal anywhere. Some women do pump while driving, and I'm not so sure that I'm in favor even of that. I think that the oxytocin rush I used to get while nursing or pumping would have rendered me unfit to drive.
