An Icelandic member of parliament was recently put into the spotlight after she addressed fellow politicians, while nursing her six week old baby.
Unnur Brá Konráðsdóttir didn’t expect to be asked a question while she breastfed her baby, but the unexpected question was directed at her to defend a bill she had put forward.
When the question was asked, Konráðsdóttir had two choices. To stop feeding her baby and hand her to a colleague, or continue breastfeeding and answer the question. Konráðsdóttir did the latter.
Konráðsdóttir told the Huffington Post, “[My child] was hungry, and I wasn’t expecting to speak, so I started feeding her.
“Then a representative asked a question about a proposal I had put forward, which I had to answer. I could choose to yank her off and leave her crying with another representative, or I could bring her with me, and I thought that would be less disruptive.”
Konráðsdóttir, who is the chair of the Icelandic Parliament’s Judicial Affairs and Education Committee, spoke for one minute, addressing fellow politicians while nursing her baby.
Her colleagues were unfazed by her actions.
Konráðsdóttir told the AFP that breastfeeding is “the most natural thing in the world. It’s like any job, you’ve got to do what you’ve got to do.”
Her baby girl is six weeks old and Konráðsdóttir has returned to work, bringing her baby along on occasion. The new mum has shared pictures on Facebook several times of taking her baby to work.
One thing about it nobody is being disturbed by a hungry distressed baby.
Looking at the photo you can’t even see that she is breastfeeding. Obviously parliament is in session and she thought she would only be present, not expected to speak. She could easily have left Parliament for the length of time it took to feed her baby.