A senator in Australia has made political history by becoming the first politician to breastfeed a child in the country’s federal Parliament.
Larissa Waters, mother to Alia Joy and co-deputy leader for the Australian Greens party, breastfed her two-month-old daughter Tuesday on the Parliament Senate floor during a vote on a Greens motion, according to the Independent. Australia has a parliamentary democracy government similar to the United Kingdom.
Waters, 40, returned to work 10 weeks after giving birth to her second daughter. She shared the moment on social media, saying “Alia makes history! First baby breastfeed in the federal Parliament. We need more women in this joint!”
Waters joined her female colleagues in pushing for the Senate to change its breastfeeding rules last year.
Not long after, Australia’s House of Representatives also changed its rules to allow lawmakers to breastfeed and bottle-feed babies while on the Parliament floor, instead of requiring them to take the children into the public galleries or Parliament offices, according to BBC News.
Under the change, babies are no longer considered “visitors,” according the BBC.
“There is absolutely no reason that rules should remain in place which make life in politics and the Parliament more difficult for women,” Australian House Leader Christopher Pyne said at the time of the change.
Public breastfeeding has been met with controversy worldwide.
In January, Pope Francis encouraged mothers to breastfeed their children while celebrating the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord in the Sistine Chapel. The ceremony can go “a little long,” the pope said.
In August, dozens of Romanian mothers gathered to breastfeed their children to promote women’s freedom to do so in public.
Waters used her moment to advocate for women, mothers and parents in Australian politics.
“We need more women and parents in Parliament. And we need more family-friendly and flexible workplaces, and affordable childcare, for everyone,” she wrote on Facebook.
Australia ranks eighth among both the best countries for raising kids and the best countries for women, according to the 2017 U.S. News Best Countries Rankings. The country trails Sweden which ranks at the top of both 2017 Best Countries lists.
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Larissa Waters Becomes First Woman to Breastfeed an Infant in Australia’s Parliament originally appeared on usnews.com
