Babies in the workplace.

What no one ever explains, because this has cropped up before, how they manage to simultaneously cope with whatever the job involves and break off several times during their working day or possibly more depending on the baby, for lengthy sessions of feeding it, and as we all know from our ante natal classes all our focus need to be on this, locking eyes and all of that. it can't be hurried, we go at the pace of the baby, which can mean they drop off intermittently whilst they are feeding, only to wake up and continue. Then there is the aftermath of the feed, winding, changing, settling. I felt I'd achieved something if I managed to get out of the house by 11 am to do anything! I love the way some people breezily announce that "oh I just carry on with my job whilst my baby sleeps peacefully by my side" yeah right! That's of course if those people around you, you know your colleagues, want a baby in the workplace disrupting what they are trying to get on with.

I worked in strategic government for many years in the political field as a PA/researcher and my boss regularly brought in his children to be cared for by me! Occasionally I would have to resort to taking them into the Chamber when work pressures became too much, but other than that I was feeding them, changing their nappies, entertaining them and generally acting as a child-minder as well as trying to do my own work. I agree with sodapop that a House of Commons creche would be a solution - with appropriate fees, of course. Why should the taxpayer subsidise MP's childcare?!!!

eazybee there will doubtless be stories of how my baby slept in a basket under my desk, in a pack on my back etc and it never did him any harm.

Doubtless there will be so I'll not waste time by telling you how my baby slept in a basket under my desk, in a pack on my back etc and it never did her any harm.

I'm sure there are other threads promoting - yes promoting - the benefits of bringing pets to work, but children? Never.

I would have thought a creche could have been organised by the MPs concerned. I had to take my daughter to a creche at the hospital where I worked in the 70s. It was slightly subsidised but the remainder was taken from my salary.

Stella Creasey is an elected MP and if she takes maternity leave she cannot have a substitute in her place. Therefore she needs, on occasion, to be present in the House of Commons, without child.
She and her husband should have worked out roles and responsibilities for the time when the child is very young. I believe the husband is in the military and is at times 'away from home'. It was their joint responsibility to organise child care with several back up plans to cover emergencies.
The workplace is not the place for a child, although there will doubtless be stories of how my baby slept in a basket under my desk, in a pack on my back etc and it never did him any harm.