Australian senator makes history by breastfeeding her baby in Parliament

Larissa Waters returned to the upper house Senate for the first time since giving birth to her second child

SYDNEY: A Greens senator has made Australian political history by becoming the first person to breastfeed a baby in the nation's parliament.



Larissa Waters returned to the upper house Senate for the first time on Tuesday since giving birth to her second child, and brought her in for a feed during a vote. "So proud that my daughter Alia is the first baby to be breastfed in the federal Parliament! We need more #women & parents in Parli," she wrote on Twitter.

So proud that my daughter Alia is the first baby to be breastfed in the federal Parliament! We need more #women & parents in Parli #auspol pic.twitter.com/w34nxWxG0y

— Larissa Waters (@larissawaters) May 9, 2017

Being able to breastfeed in the chamber follows new rules introduced last year to create a more a "family friendly" parliament in the wake of what has been described as a "baby boom" among politicians. Under previous rules, children were technically banned.

Here is Kirstie Marshall before she was ejected from the Vic Parliament for breastfeeding her 11-day old bub. Look how far we have come! pic.twitter.com/LrzZcIFBXq

— Larissa Waters (@larissawaters) May 10, 2017

Labor frontbencher Katy Gallagher said the moment deserved to be acknowledged. "Women have been doing it in parliaments around the world... It is great to see it is able to occur now in the Senate," she told Sky News. "Women are going to continue to have babies and if they want to do their job and be at work and look after their baby... the reality is we are going to have to accommodate that."