An Italian MP is threatening to breastfeed her baby in her seat after vainly asking for a room in the House.
"At present I'm forced to beg space in the infirmary which doctors have told me is definitely not the place for a newborn child, with its risk of picking up bugs," said first-time MP Donatella Poretti in a second letter to House
Speaker Fausto Bertinotti.
"Next Tuesday is an all-day session. Should I follow the doctors' advice and take Alice with me into the House or find a spot in the parliamentary lounge?" "The House keeps resounding with weighty speeches about women quotas. I suppose they mean quotas for women who promise not to get pregnant".
She reiterated that a parliamentary creche would be "a great example" for the rest of the Italian working world.
Poretti, a 38-year-old Florentine journalist elected for the Radical Party, first wrote to Bertinotti two weeks go in the hope of having a baby-care room added to the array of plush facilities in the hulking building.
For the time being, between one voting session and the next, she is forced to leave the assembly every two hours or so, using a corner of the infirmary to feed two-month-old Alice.
According to the Italian Society of Paediatricians (SIP), eight out of ten mothers choose to breast-feed their babies but the majority have to give up when they go back to work after a three-month maternity leave.
"We're lagging behind other European countries in terms of work creches and baby-care rooms," said SIP President Giuseppe Saggese. Maria Rita Munizzi, president of children's rights organisation MOIGE, said: "Every woman has the right to breast-feed and every child has the right to their mother's milk".
"But in Italy these rights are hard to claim, even in prestigious workplaces like parliament".
"Because of the serious shortage of facilities, most women are forced to choose between their work and their children," Munizzi said. "That's why Italy has one of the lowest birth rates in the world and such a small number of women in work".
The Higher Health Institute says it is aware of the problem and has set a target of 90% of moms being able to
breast-feed for as long as their milk lasts. "I'm not asking for special treatment," Poretti said.
"All I and Alice want is a place for ourselves - a solution to a problem that faces millions of working mothers".
