Breastfeeding friendly zone debate prompts 'feed-in' by West Kelowna parents

A group of B.C. parents are planning a "feed-in" at a West Kelowna council meeting next week in the hopes of pressuring the city in declaring municipal buildings as "breastfeeding friendly zones."

The protest comes after some councillors expressed opposition to the proposal, which stems from the Interior Healthy Authority's baby friendly initiative.

Sarah Tremblay, one of the organizers, says both breastfeeding and bottle-feeding parents will be at Tuesday's council meeting.

"I'm hoping that the demonstration shows council that it's an important issue for West Kelowna families, that supporting breastfeeding women helps to support healthy children, which then creates healthy families, and healthy families create a healthy community," she said.

At their last meeting, Coun. Rosalind Neis spoke against the public education initiative, saying that while she supports breastfeeding, she dislikes these kinds of campaigns.

"I'm really concerned that the public needs to be told by every organization out there, how we should dress, what we should do," she said.