Stella Creasey forbidden from bringing her baby to Parliament

[ArabellaScott]

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-59396801

'"I've had a baby, I haven't given up my brain or capacity to do things and our politics and our policy making will be better by having more mums at the table," she added.'

Interesting to think how politics and daily life might be changed were it to be more mother (and child) friendly.

So an MP can take leave but will leave her constituents unrepresented if she does so.

This seems unacceptable to women and to the electorate. What solutions are there?

Women need to be in politics. Women need to be represented.

@Forgotthebins

Lobsternapkin I don’t think she thinks her baby is morally superior to other babies. But “well-behaved” is a weirdly old-fashioned thing to say. I would have overlooked it myself but now I am wondering what point she is making. If she has maternity leave and a proxy vote, I am not clear why she needs to be at work with a tiny baby. If there is a reason she needs to be, it shouldn’t matter if the baby is quiet or not - if she has a right to be there, so does any parent whatever the volume level of their baby. So she has confused the issue even more by saying it was ok because she had a “well-behaved” baby.

I think this idea that if one parent can make an arrangement work, it should be open to other parents even if their situation is different, is questionable.

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.

@ArabellaScott

So an MP can take leave but will leave her constituents unrepresented if she does so.

This seems unacceptable to women and to the electorate. What solutions are there?

Women need to be in politics. Women need to be represented.

I'm not sure there are any, TBH.

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.

@AlfonsoTheUnrepentant

Ms Creasey should make arrangements for child care and not bring children into the chamber. It has nothing to do with her being an MP or her baby being "well-behaved".

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

It's not that unusual for jobs to allow an infant in the workplace under certain circumstances. For example women who do office work, baby is in a nursery in the office but it brought up at certain times to feed.

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 don't know, I'm ambivalent here. I want mothering to be normalised and not all hidden away. But I agree it's a full time (more than full time) job in itself.

And women really do need to be represented in politics, it's already hard given the volume of abuse women seem to attract. But not all jobs are compatible with all situations.

Gah. I don't know. Age old question, isn't it?

My vague thought is that maybe politics itself needs to change, needs to be less intense and demanding, needs democratised further, devolved, shared, brought more into the community and less intensely focussed on some few people in Westminster.

How on earth we start doing that, though, I'm not sure.

Obviously, not on a battlefield, that would be a bad idea

You never met my colicky firstborn, then.

@ArabellaScott

So an MP can take leave but will leave her constituents unrepresented if she does so.

This seems unacceptable to women and to the electorate. What solutions are there?

Women need to be in politics. Women need to be represented.

I don't think the electorate give a damn to be honest. I've worked in government and Parliament. It is a workplace and no place for children whether they are brought there by mother or father. It would be no less unreasonable for that johnson twat to turn up,to PMQs with the latest from the current wife in a sling than it is a labour backbencher.

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.

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

Yes, I think this type of accommodation should really be far more widely implemented.

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"

@Forgotthebins

I really feel my understanding would be improved if I could know exactly what maternity provision MPs are entitled to. Does anyone know where I can find out?

At the salaries they get, a nanny isn't exactly an unaffordable pipe dream. And there are private nurseries in the Westminster region.

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?

@WhereAreWeNow

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?

She could have left her infant in the HoC nursery but decided not to. That is the issue - not maternity leave.

@merrymouse

Also, although she used a locum after her first pregnancy, that was a pilot scheme which won’t be repeated.

That’s not true- she was offered a locum again but turned one down as IPSO would only pay £60k. She wanted them to match her salary but they refused on the grounds the locum could only legally cover a portion of her duties (the case work). That plus a proxy vote in the house though would have covered the majority of her role as a backbench MP.

Sounds a reasonable offer to me.

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.

@WhereAreWeNow

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?

How long does she have to be in the house at a time, though? Some debates go on for hours. Can she pop out to feed?

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?

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.

What is Stella's explanation for why the baby can't be left in the crèche? And is she also still in charge of all her constituency work whilst full time caring for a child?

I think Stella Creasy’s doing a great job of drawing attention to how fucking hard it is to be a working mother to a young baby and I really appreciate that she’s doing that. Especially in an extremely high pressure job like hers. I really wish for her sake that she didn’t feel she had to make a personal stand in this way and that she could have relied on some better mat leave arrangements.

But I think she’s a clever operator and she knows what she’s doing. I appreciate that she didn’t actually have to do this and attract the flak that she will get for it. As she says, it’s too late for her personally to benefit from any changes made. I hope that her doing this may focus male MPs’ minds on the fact that many women will need better support in the workplace to remain working/in the workplace if they also to have a family.

I think she's doing a great job of drawing attention to herself.

I don’t know the ins and outs of the debate she took the baby to but maybe she really wanted to speak at it personally and put her face against this issue. I think that’s a good thing. A proxy vote wouldn’t be the same, nor would giving another MP colleague some words to say on her behalf in the chamber, (if MPs are even allowed to do that for each other?)

I’m kind of confused.
Up to last week it seemed being an MP was just a part time endeavour for dozens of MPs, which should make it compatible with parenting. So long as you don’t actually have a second job. No idea if SC does.
In any case I didn’t realise there was an on-site Creche - don’t think SC mentioned that on BBC R4 WH this morning - there really is no need for the baby to be in the chamber. However I agree with the OP that the set-up in Parliament needs to be improved to be suitable for mothers of young children as well as old men with second jobs. But I think SC has been a little disingenuous - though maybe it was the only way to get us all talking about it.

I’d be very surprised if the baby comes to many more debates, I think this is about making a political point and getting a picture that will be used to illustrate it. Nothing wrong with that at all!

If it's an occasional thing because she's mid feed and needs to be in at that moment to vote, or because her nanny is off sick and her partner really can't cover - fair enough.

As a regular thing then no - there's a creche in the commons or she earns enough for a nanny share. Babies cry and need changing and they don't belong in the work place on a regular basis.