federic is the first newborn in Italian history to enter the hemicycle of Montecitorio to be with his mother while breastfeeding: the little one, son of the honorable 5-star Gilda Sportiello, will not be the last to do so because from now on, bringing your child to the Chamber will no longer be such an unusual event.
Gilda Sportiello, mother in action in the Chamber of Deputies
Giorgio Mulè announced that “from this session, a very small Federico will make his debut in the Chamber for the first time and with the unanimity of the groups”.
A special station has been set up in the Chamber in the last upper row, so that the parliamentarian was able to participate in the final vote of the decree law on public administration and at the same time breastfeeding her baby who was greeted by unanimous applause. The baby was also very good.
The Honorable 5 Star was thus able to participate in the proceedings of the Chamber and at the same time breastfeed her baby (credit Instagram)
Gilda Sportiello: «May it no longer be an exception»
“May this not be the exception,” writes Gilda Sportiello in an Instagram post alongside a photo of her with the baby in her arms.
“No mother should ever again be prohibited from being able to breastfeed wherever she chooses to do it – she adds – No woman should be forced to stop breastfeeding prematurely to return to work. May rights always be guaranteed and respected for all boys and girls, for all families. All. Today the highest democratic institution in this country demonstrates that it can be done. This day is certainly not a point of arrival for the battles of mothers, women and children: this is just the beginning”.
A big change
This will be possible thanks to the regulation change approved in November 2022according to which “mother deputies can stay in the Chamber during the sessions in the Chamber, participating in parliamentary work, with their children and breastfeeding them in the Hemicycle until they turn one year old”.
In particular, the arrangement derogation from the article of the Internal Regulations of Montecitorio on the basis of which “no person from outside the Chamber may, under any pretext, enter the Chamber where its members sit”.
Breastfeeding in the Chamber, elsewhere is nothing new
An absolute novelty for Italy, but certainly not for other Parliaments. In 2017 she had toured the world photographing the Deputy Leader of the Australian Greens, Larissa Waterswho was the first in Australian history to breastfeed her newborn in an institutional setting.
But note is also that by the PDL MEP Licia Ronzulli who showed up with little Vittoria al European Parliament in order to promote a better reconciliation between motherhood and work. An action that, over the years, he has repeated over and over again, effectively leading to a cultural change.
An important result that has the important value of an example, given that cases are still often reported in Italy today of women reprimanded in shops or clubs for breastfeeding “in public”.
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