Female MPs call for breastfeeding to be allowed in House of Commons | Politics | The Guardian
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/201 ... of-commons

I can't see much reason not to allow it. Certainly not because the press are generally a pack of cnuts or the average worker is somehow gonna be overcome with jealousy

It is a natural part of bringing up a child, where is the problem again?

If it is good enough for boulevard cafés, trains and shops, where is the problem here?

Why do MPs get to bring babies to work? Surely that shows they're not working hard enough?


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Exactly

I have no issues with women breastfeeding but I don’t think that they should bring them into work – I don’t want to be sitting at my desk trying to work while there are a dozen screaming kids (OK in the house of commons there is enough screaming from the “Right Honourables”…but)

They should not be bringing children into work – by all means push for better child care but NO to babies in the office

I'll all for breastfeeding where ever, but when did people starting taking babies to work with them?

Quite a while

Working mother MEP takes baby to parliament

Have you people never heard of creches?

Just saying...

If the kids are in a crèche and the mum exits session to breastfeed during a break, there's no issue. Same with male MEPs using the facilities surely *
I mean male MEPs should be allowed to use on site crèche facilities as much as women


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I can't imagine having a baby on the HoC chamber during PMQ would be a very good idea at least.

I'm in agreement with the notion of providing places to breast feed which have all useful baby-related services there as well (e.g. changing stations, nappy disposal etc) but I don't see that 'the right to breastfeed during working hours' equals 'the right to breastfeed anywhere and anywhen'. There are places of work where it is inappropriate to have an infant anyway and also places of work where it's required that you give your full attention to the job. If you are in the chamber to take part in a debate, or in a committee hearing evidence, those are the things you have to be doing. Anything which distracts you - be it breastfeeding or anything else - from that should not be allowed.

So the HoC should definitely have baby care facilities and they should be somewhere in easy distance of the chamber to be as convenient as possible. But an MP has responsibility to their constituents, and having a baby is not a reason not to fulfil those responsibilities.

One possible issue is there's no account in our parliamentary system for parental leave - there's just no mechanism for it.There definitely should be, but I'm not sure how it could be implemented. Other than resigning and forcing a by-election, which is utterly unsatisfactory on many levels.

Basically put, you can be a working breastfeeding mother but you are also a professional being paid to do a job. It's up to you to manage both of those requirements, not for everyone else to forget one of those exists.