Stella Creasey forbidden from bringing her baby to Parliament

I'm sure she would be able to pop out if need be or failing that her baby could, shock horror, be given a bottle of expressed milk, or double shock horror, formula.

I think if she can’t leave the baby long enough to attend then she shouldn’t attend. It doesn’t sound like a great place for a baby to be, and I sincerely doubt anyone can multitask so that both roles are fulfilled, or should. You don’t carry/feed your baby while you drive, mow the lawn, use a gym, why on Earth would you take it into parliament?

Yeah I agree - locum or extra case workers plus proxy voting seems like a good solution, considering the particular circumstances of being an elected representative. I’m not sure why it wasn’t good enough.

Sounds a reasonable offer to me.

I don't understand why she couldn't use the House of Commons nursery. I would have killed to have a top notch nursery in my workplace rather than an hour's commute away.
I thought proxy votes were sorted out when Jo Swinson was on maternity leave. Isn't that an option?

But not all jobs are compatible with all situations

I think that sums it up perfectly.

There seems to be nursery facilities on offer in the H of C ; probably of a very high standard. That's been met on here with "but attachment, but must breastfeed so that's not good enough"

What female MPs who this matter affects should be doing is lobbying for the continuation of remote voting/proxy voting/proper cover etc.

What they should not be doing is rocking up to a,debate plus child because, as SC is a labour MP, that will just cement the views that labour are out of touch with working class Britain. After all, will Lidl/Aldi/Tesco's allow their female staff to sit on the till or fill,shelves with a baby strapped to them.

I don't know any firefighters but I did know a woman who's husband would bring her baby to nurse around lunch when I was in the army. Obviously, not on a battlefield, that would be a bad idea.

Many workplaces provide private areas to pump milk, and storage facilities, for mums. Given that breastfeeding in public should be perfectly acceptable I can't see any reason to avoid it if the scenario is working out. Which might look different for different jobs.

I think it's generally a good idea to try and make politics a place where women with kids can reasonably work. Though the fact is that travel and sometimes unpredictable hours may be difficult to avoid and maybe that will impact women more than men. But it can be navigated and women do it.

But as far as having a baby, I'm not convinced being an MP is compatible with being a primary caregiver. Which means that there may be a few years where it's not going to be easy for mothers to do that job. It's kind of true of lots of things though - it's not easy to be a primary caregiver while actively attending university FT either.

Being an MP also isn't like a regular career though where you have to start young with a particular skill set and carry on for many years. It's entirely possible to get into politics after having kids, and TBH I tend to think older MPs with a bit more life experience have some advantages anyway.

It's unfortunate that not all parents find their babies are equally adaptable, but that's always the risk with becoming a parent. Sometimes you get a quiet predictable baby you can breastfeed at the office when it's tiny and you may be able to swing mum working FT and BF while someone else does the rest of the care, other times you have a child with serious health issues and you have to leave your job altogether.

Realistically, if her baby is quiet, for now I don't see why she shouldn't nurse while in the chamber. Obviously she's going to need arrangements in case the baby gets fussy or becomes less quiet in general. I don't think that implies anyone can have a fussy baby there while there is work being done.

I’m self employed but work within a business. I’m a specialist so couldn’t get maternity cover so I often brought my baby to work / worked from home / did conference calls with baby all from when she was a few weeks old. It was horrid for me (and probably her!), but I felt I had to in order to keep my clients and to ensure I had work to come back to after maternity less work (not leave!) I imagine she feels that she has to keep going in order to ensure she gets re-elected ?

In this case she has been specifically elected to represent her constituents.

The baby happened to be asleep so she was able to talk uninterrupted.

I do not believe that the MP should have taken the baby to the House of Commons, I do not think work in general is a place for children or babies. When people are at work they are there to do a job not look after their child.

There should be in this case a way of ensuring that the constituency is represented whilst the MP is on maternity leave - and there should be proper maternity provision.

I can really sympathise with her trying to make it work (working with baby in lap) if there is no maternity cover. Parliament has to figure out a way to provide that, it might take a bit of working out but it’s hardly rocket science.

That's not what I asked. I asked if it would be ok for other people to bring their infants to their workplaces.

If she were a waitress, would it be acceptable for her to bring her infant to her workplace? Or a teacher? Or a firefighter?

No, because the employer hires another waitress/teacher/firefighter while the employee is on maternity leave.