Australian MP creates history by breastfeeding baby during Parliament speech

Greens Senator @larissawaters just became the first woman in Australian parliament to give a speech while breast feeding. pic.twitter.com/lvmZ8C32GN

— BuzzFeedOz Politics (@BuzzFeedOzPol) June 22, 2017

There’s a lot of social stigma attached to mothers breastfeeding their child in public spaces. However, many women have vowed to not bow down and break the taboos. And leading the path is surely Australian parliamentarian Larissa Waters. The MP created history by breastfeeding her three-and-half-month-old baby while moving a motion in Parliament.

Greens Senator Larissa Waters putting forward a motion on Black Lung while breastfeeding in the Senate #auspol pic.twitter.com/k7RgBy4yqp— Lukas Coch (@cochl) June 22, 2017

Addressing the house, she spoke about black lung disease, a condition affecting coal miners, while feeding her daughter Alia Joy.

Waters, a Greens MP from Queensland later joked on Twitter that her daughter “moved her own motion” before she could move hers! “First time I’ve had to move a Senate motion while breastfeeding! And my partner in crime moved her own motion just before mine, bless her,” she wrote on Twitter.

First time I've had to move a Senate motion while breastfeeding! And my partner in crime moved her own motion just before mine, bless her

— Larissa Waters (@larissawaters) June 22, 2017

However, this is not the first time she did this in the Parliament. The senator made headlines in May when she became the first woman to breastfeed in Australia’s Senate. This is significant and welcomed by women around the world and particularly women leaders in Australia as in 2009, Sarah Hanson-Young was forced to remove her two-year-old child from the chamber – an incident she described as “humiliating”.

I think this is what ppl mean when they talk abt a flexible boss. @RichardDiNatale with @larissawaters new staffer. @ellinghausen pic. pic.twitter.com/e5mrMT5p1p— Stephanie Peatling (@srpeatling) June 22, 2017

Such instances of women in powerful and public positions taking a stand to actively remove the stigma and ‘disgust’ associated with women breastfeeding their children in public will go along way in the larger context of gender equality around the world.