Greens senator Larissa Waters has made history once again, breastfeeding her baby while moving a motion in the Australian parliament.
Waters, the co-leader of the country’s left-wing Greens party, breast-fed her 14-month-old baby when she moved a motion about black lung disease.
Watyers herself tweeted after the session, writing: “First time I’ve had to move a Senate motion while breastfeeding!”
“Breast-feeding is a normal and natural thing that women have been doing since time immemorial, and in that sense, it’s quite unusual to me that it caused such a sensation”, she said.
“Women have always worked and reared children, whether that work was paid in the workplace or unpaid in the home”, she explained.
“Well I think it’s slightly ridiculous that feeding one’s baby is global news – women have been breastfeeding for as long as time immemorial”, Waters said.
Though breastfeeding is a normal and natural process, many women have been shamed for doing it in public spaces.
The Australian parliament changed its rules in 2016 to allow female politicians to breastfeed their children in the chamber, as a part of making it a “family friendly” parliament.
This is the same Parliament, where back in 2009, Sarah Hanson-Young’s two-year-old daughter Kora was taken from her arms and taken away from the Senate chamber. “I hope it helps to normalise breastfeeding and remove any vestige of stigma against breastfeeding a baby when they are hungry”, she said. Many women leave the workforce because there are no adequate means or support for them to take care of their children as well as work but if we have such broad minded and supportive laws then women will not be forced to leave the workforce.
Waters’ motion wasn’t without critics, though-aka Twitter trolls who feel Alia should be kept out of the Parliament altogether.