Why it’s important that this Argentinian politician was breastfeeding her baby on the job

We’re all about Victoria Donda Pérez, the 37-year-old Argentinian parliament member (who, in 2007, became the youngest woman ever to be elected to the Argentine National Congress) who regularly brings her 8-month old daughter Trilce to work.  As New York Magazine reports, earlier this month, Pérez had her daughter in her lap during a parliamentary session, and, when her daughter got hungry, Pérez, of course, fed her.

Someone snapped a shot of Pérez breastfeeding her little girl, and the photograph was published by Perú21 magazine, and has since gone all kinds of viral. Social media has exploded with responses to this politician taking care of her child while on the job. Many are heralding Pérez as a hero, a politician and a mother who is doing what she has to do to juggle both jobs.

While others are surprised that we live in a world in which such a big deal must be made over a mom feeding her child while on the job

We’re having a moment here when it comes to the cultural conversation surround public breastfeeding. When we talk about women balancing work and childcare, part of what we’re talking about is women living in a world that makes it difficult to care for their children while simultaneously managing the rest of their lives. It’s not that it’s physically impossible to care for a baby while going about one’s day, it’s that we live in a world in which women are shamed for things like breastfeeding in public. Lately, we’re seeing lots of stories in which mothers of infants either shine on this shaming or straight-up fight back (we’re thinking of the woman who responded perfectly to the stranger who Facebook-shamed her for breastfeeding). Then of course, there are women like Victoria Donda Pérez, who are in positions of power and are using their influence to normalize public breastfeeding. We applaud Pérez, and we’re hoping that this conversation keeps going in the right direction and that we reach a point soon where public breastfeeding is treated as it should be- like a natural, normal, NBD part of life.

Related:

Target’s breastfeeding policy is awesome, and we think other stores should take note

Why we need more covers like Elle’s of Nicole Trunfio breastfeeding

Images via Twitter