Bringing a newborn to university lectures

[Nimnuan]

I'm on a part-time university course (apprenticeship) and expecting a baby in the next few weeks. I'm not intending to take a break as any break would mean a year's delay. All classes this year my baby will be under 26 weeks old and breastfeeding.
I want to bring her to lectures with me because arranging childcare and expressing breastmilk will be much more difficult at such a young age and given the university's atrocious arrangements for expressing. Obviously if she cries or is disruptive I'll have to step out into the hallway.
I've just been told that I'm not allowed to bring my newborn to lectures because it would be a "contravention of rules and regulations". I've asked to be told which rules and regulations but haven't heard back yet.
Can you give me any advice about how to argue my case?

She didn't post in AIBU

That doesn’t mean she isn’t being unreasonable.

Tough. It’s not feasible for all sorts of reasons previously stated so there’s no arguments to be made. Find childcare or take the year off. Those are your options.

I'm not sure why people on here are getting their knickers in a twist. What's it to them if you bring your baby? Expressing or not, a newborn needs it's Mother. In the 80s my Mother brought us into Uni with her when we were off school. She was a single Mother of 4 and had no choice. We used to sit in the back and colour. I wouldn't have asked, I would have just brought the baby. It might end up feeling stressful if she is having a full on meltdown though. That happens a lot after 2 weeks. Keep the wake windows short, is my advice to prevent these.

She wasn't asking for your opinion on her baby. She probably couldn't give a shit about your opinion. Not sure why you think she would.

In my experience of apprentice degree courses, the lectures are not shared with fee paying students. The students the OP could be disturbing would not be paying the fees themselves.

Of course, this may not be the case at all institutions.

Because she posted on a public forum.

IF the baby is fussy, then yes I agree with you. But not all babies are fussy, grizzling creatures - especially when they're very young and sleep. My first kid could easily have slept through whole lectures, especially for the first few months.

There's no way to know until the baby is here but not even assessing the real situation and declaring it DEFINITELY be something it's not before we know is silly and catastrophising.

In the 80s student didn’t pay fees and got grants, housing benefit if in digs, and unemployment benefit during the holidays,

Erm, newsflash? Babies cry.

The attitude that a few instances of transient inconvenience should be tolerated, especially when the person involved is trying hard to improve things for themselves also? Yes.

The students may not be paying fees directly (their employers however are), but these students still need the best opportunity to learn, they still need to pass assessments. They could potentially lose their job if they don’t. They might feel disturbed, they might not, it might affect their learning, it might not. But I suppose that’s not for the OP to decide/dictate whether it’s worth the risk or not.

Im a lecturer, and yes sometimes students are muttering to each other, people turn up late, they go to the loo, etc. the coming and going is distracting, I can be mid sentence and I’m really having to work to not be distracted. Yes that’s my job and I’m good at my job but I’m only human and it does make my job harder.

I’ve got some students who have ADHD and really struggle with any noise, if someone is whispering to someone else and they are often complaining to me about feeling distracted and struggling to concentrate in sessions. I do obviously tell students politely to pipe down if they’re talking when I am but sometimes it’s hard to pick it all up. For any student who is easily distracted they may well find it really difficult to concentrate if a baby is in the room. At what point does the OP leave, full on crying obviously, but what about a bit of murmuring, how much shushing does she do before deciding to leave, etc? It’s all distracting.

Fair point. They will each have a big business behind them expecting returns from the training and also likely to be unimpressed if their apprentices are having that disrupted by another firm’s apprentice bringing a baby with them.

So you wouldn't want any provisions to be made for women with newborns to access education? Things could be different in so many ways, and you're not happy to accept any of them? They should just be denied access? I see. Interesting that you would admit that.

Surely the lectures is part of their work, so OP is allowed to use them as KIT says and so should follow normal work guidelines which do not normally include bringing newborns into work. I assume if OP was using her KIT days to go into her other workplace her newborn wouldn’t be coming in.

@Tfishappening there is childcare, there is shared leave, there is opportunity to defer course. Quite a few options there

There is breastfeeding

@Tfishappening and there are places set up for expressing milk

Do you struggle to read or are you deliberately pretending I said something else?

I can simplify: I don't want babies or children admitted to lectures.

I think there's a limit to this though - employers and education providers do have a duty of care and SHOULD be taking major surgery/ health changes into account - obviously in a supportive way but they do need to protect people. I also felt pretty good after my section and was out and about early after but I did too much, pulled stitches and had a nightmare getting rid of the infection as well. I felt completely capable until it happened just from trying to lift my carseat onto the pram base. We don't want to get into a situation where we dictate women can't work, but equally we don't want to promote the idea that women should just be getting on with it - the employers who refer to maternity leave as a 'holiday' spring to mind. Women deserve better from employers and providers and powering through doesn't serve us well because the reality is that its a major thing for someone's body to go through. The point I was trying to make is just that martyring ourselves to prove we can to get ahead, often is used against women in general. Sometimes even by other women - "I was fine so you're being dramatic" type of mentality. "I got on with it with no support so you should be able to" etc I think it really minimises the experience of pregnancy, birth and post partum period. My point is just you don't really want to be setting a precedence that could be used against other women.

My experience is that those big businesses can be absolutely ruthless when their students fail to meet agreed targets. They are simply pulled off the course.

As a result the students can come up with the most inventive reasons to explain their poor performance. Other students repeatedly sniffing or the birds singing too loud during exams, for example.

It's not the 80's anymore ...

And all university campuses have facilities where women can express milk.

In the 80s my Mother brought us into Uni with her when we were off school.

Well, it's not the 80s anymore more and, unlike then, students now are paying £9000 a year for an education. They want to be able to hear it.

I would think this would be your best form of negotiation. Make it very clear you need a suitable space and ensure it is provided ( I’m pretty sure it’s a legal requirement?)
Hope this thread is not completely useless to you, not a lot of women supporting women going on in this thread.