--- title: Australian Senator First-Ever to Breastfeed in Parliament description: Find out why Australian Senator Larissa Waters decided to make history and breast feed her daughter in Parliament. canonical: https://time.com/4774505/larissa-waters-first-to-breastfeed-australian-parliament/ author: TIME article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-05-10T18:31:32.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T09:05:35.774Z og:title: Australian Senator Becomes First-Ever to Breastfeed in Parliament og:description: In addition to just feeding her baby, Larissa Waters wanted to send a message og:url: https://time.com/4774505/larissa-waters-first-to-breastfeed-australian-parliament/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8eafb9766a448016/6988ccc6a988caf9746bc2ab/breastfeeding.jpg?branch=production&width=510&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 510 og:image:height: 287 og:image:alt: breastfeeding og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Australian Senator Becomes First-Ever to Breastfeed in Parliament twitter:description: In addition to just feeding her baby, Larissa Waters wanted to send a message twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8eafb9766a448016/6988ccc6a988caf9746bc2ab/breastfeeding.jpg?branch=production&width=510&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Australian Senator Becomes First-Ever to Breastfeed in Parliament > Sponsored content. 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Worth Your Time is TIME's culture newsletter, published Tuesdays and Saturdays to 40,000 subscribers as of August 2026. #### Who writes TIME's culture recommendations? Culture editor Eliza Berman writes Worth Your Time, drawing on TIME's critics and culture desk. #### Is Worth Your Time free? Yes. It is a free newsletter available at time.com/newsletters. by [Julie Mazziotta](https://time.com/author/people/) ## Julie Mazziotta Contributor May 10, 2017 6:31 PM UTC  @larissawaters—Twitter by [Julie Mazziotta](https://time.com/author/people/) ## Julie Mazziotta Contributor May 10, 2017 6:31 PM UTC Australian Senator Larissa Waters made history Tuesday as the first person to [breastfeed](http://people.com/tag/breastfeeding/) in her country’s Parliament. Waters, the co-leader of the left-wing Greens party, returned from a 10-week-long maternity leave with her newborn daughter, Alia Joy, and [nursed her during a vote](http://people.com/politics/chelsea-clinton-its-time-to-erase-the-stigmas-around-menstruation-and-breastfeeding/). The parliamentarian was instrumental in passing a rule last year that allowed for [members to breastfeed](http://people.com/bodies/moms-public-breastfeeding-rights) in the senate chambers, according to [_The Courier Mail_](http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/larissa-waters-to-milk-new-senate-breastfeeding-rules/news-story/494c056c9d8ce4f794f655bc28027d8b). Still, Waters was surprised to receive so much [attention](http://people.com/bodies/mom-shamed-by-mall-security-for-breastfeeding-in-public/). “Well I think it’s slightly ridiculous that feeding one’s baby is international news — women have been breastfeeding for as long as time immemorial,” Waters, 40, [tells the _BBC_](http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p052hwl8). “But in another sense, this is the first time this has happened in our Parliament in 116 years, so it’s definitely world history-making.” “I had hoped to not only feed my baby, but also to send a message to young women that they belong in the Parliament, and that they can be both Parliamentarians and be moms.” Waters adds that beyond a few stray remarks from “the more elderly members of the Senate, who, perhaps, haven’t entered this century yet,” the reaction has been entirely positive. “Perhaps I’m biased but she is a very cute baby, so there’s lots of smiles and it’s been quite the mood lightener,” she says. And after sharing a photo of her[ breastfeeding](http://people.com/bodies/breastfeeding-mom-asked-leave-church/) in Parliament on social media, Waters says the comments have been “touching.” > [](https://twitter.com/larissawaters/status/861830244906315776) “Lots of women thanking me for doing it, not just for normalizing breastfeeding, which is itself an important issue, but there’s still a little bit of stigma in some corners of society,” she says. “But it’s been lovely to hear from the young women and the other moms who’ve said, this is a role model for my daughter or for myself, to know that we can aspire to this sort of occupation.” _This_ [_article_](http://people.com/bodies/australian-senator-first-breastfeed-parliament/) _originally appeared on_ [_People.com_](http://people.com) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4774505/larissa-waters-first-to-breastfeed-australian-parliament/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4774505/larissa-waters-first-to-breastfeed-australian-parliament/"},"headline":"Australian Senator Becomes First-Ever to Breastfeed in Parliament","datePublished":"2017-05-10T18:31:32.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T09:05:35.774Z","description":"In addition to just feeding her baby, Larissa Waters wanted to send a message","url":"https://time.com/4774505/larissa-waters-first-to-breastfeed-australian-parliament/","keywords":["motto","Parenting","Australia","politics","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8eafb9766a448016/6988ccc6a988caf9746bc2ab/breastfeeding.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Julie Mazziotta"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8eafb9766a448016/6988ccc6a988caf9746bc2ab/breastfeeding.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"breastfeeding","caption":"breastfeeding","creditText":"@larissawaters—Twitter","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/motto/","name":"motto"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4774505/larissa-waters-first-to-breastfeed-australian-parliament/","name":"Australian Senator Becomes First-Ever to Breastfeed in Parliament"}}]}] ```