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?

Have you bothered to read this Op

https://www.angliastudent.com/advice/studentparentsandcarers/studentparents/

I had my first baby at the beginning of September and was in class 3 weeks later. Half my classes were labs so absolutely couldn’t bring a baby but would never have brought him to lectures either.

Make a choice; stay home with your baby and delay uni or get childcare and go to uni. No one wants a baby in the lecture hall.

You can’t take a baby to lectures. What a friend of mine did was take a year out then went back the following September.

In which case move it to legal.

Op this is so selfish. Please don't do this, it will be disruptive to all the other students as well as you and as well as the lecturer!!

Find childcare to cover the lectures like everyone else!

Wear a portable breast pump? I wore one in my office. It was honestly no big deal.

Yab wildly u

It's 0900-1530, next trimester it's going to be 0900-1900. It's a 1.5hr drive.
I'll need to express every 1.5hrs or it will be seriously painful. The lactation room is a 15 minute walk from my lectures and you need to sign out a key. Takes 20 minutes to express.
Lectures are 3hrs each with a 20 minute break in the middle.
By the time I get back to class I'll have missed half of it. I'll also need to express before I drive home and before the first class.

I think you're better off fighting for recordings of the lectures rather than demanding to be able to take your baby to lectures.
Other students are paying fees to attend these lectures and won't be appreciative of a newborn being a distraction. What if multiple students had babies and they all wanted to bring them to lectures, how could they say no to them if they say yes to you?
If you want a more suitable place to be able to express milk, then ask them for that.
I couldn't bring a newborn to work either, sometimes you have to accept there are certain situations where your child can not be in attendance because it impacts on other people.

Why can't you get a childminder? It's one day, can't be THAT expensive?

That’s not a valid argument, it’s not a suitable environment for infants and toddlers for reasons already set out.

They are not allowed in because it’s not a suitable environment for children. And it’s a likely distraction to the lecturer and fellow students.

Other students who have arranged childcare and or taken time off would be extremely pissed off to find a baby in the lectures. And they will complain.

This is not discriminating , any more than not being allowed to prop your baby on your knee at work is not discriminating. Reasonable adjustment is as far as the Uni obligations will go

What’s your plan for once the baby isn’t a newborn ? Why can’t the father have her for the day?

No.

I almost feel as though things are going backwards I took my baby to work with me in a high precious Sales environment and breastfed her and then popped her in the car seat under my desk until she was old enough to go to nursery at six weeks

Have you asked whether they will allow this as an adaptation to your circumstances?

I am answering the question you asked:
Ask your course leader for a copy of the university's policy on supporting students who are pregnant or have recently given birth. That will give you the information you need to establish whether this is something you can explore. Also speak to the students' union.

Had not considered that as an option 😂

Employers fulfil their obligations to breastfeeding mothers by providing an appropriate space to express and store milk, not by allowing babies in the workplace.

Also. You made out like there wasn’t a lactation room. There is.

Maybe you should take time out then. Sounds totally shit for the baby.

That sounds horrible for the baby.

I would say the opposite OP, I think you should take those views into consideration - other posters objections and their reasons why - because you might need to argue against these views to make your case. For example, if I was a fellow student I would object to the class possibly being disrupted if/when the baby cries, even though you would leave the room when it happened, by then the disruption has already occurred. If I'm paying thousands for a course, I don't want it to be interrupted. If enough students said this, the university would have to listen - what could/would you say to argue against this? No need to answer that on here, but you would need a response. Other posters may raise other objections, which you can plan your response to.

That's an incredibly long day out the house and sounds completely unfeasible. Is there a reason you're ignoring the sensible suggestion for breast pumps and the father having the baby for these days?

I'm a uni lecturer and tbh, I'd be fine with this in a small-group setting where you could step out IMMEDIATELY at the first sign of whinge. But small setups are usually more informal anyway, and it might be harder at a large lecture hall. Most likely a newborn would sleep/be on the boob for the duration.

I also wouldn't agree to this. I wouldn't have agreed as another student on the course and wouldn't have done it as a Mum.

As other previous posters have said, if everybody did this it would be mayhem.

Even one baby is too much in a university lecture.