Parenting

DC Lawmaker Pumps Breastmilk During Public Hearing Like A Total Boss

by Cassandra Stone
Image via Twitter

Because breastfeeding boobs wait for no one, not even a D.C. councilwoman

The demanding nature of breastfeeding doesn’t strictly revolve around hungry infants — for many working, nursing moms the pump schedule can be just as demanding. Basically, your boobs are on a clock that stops for no one, no matter how important your job is. Just ask D.C. councilwoman and new mom Brianne Nadeau.

Nadeau did what any working, breastfeeding mom does when it comes to handling a busy workday and bursting boobs — she found a way to pump without sacrificing her work obligations. By casually and unapologetically pumping breastmilk during an important public hearing. Like a total boss.

The hearing, regarding homelessness, was set to span six hours. Since Nadeau is the mother of a three-month-old infant, that means her boobs would be set to burst, oh, about every two to three hours. So a mama’s gotta do what a mama’s gotta do, right?

“As a new mom, I don’t want to recess my committee each time I need to pump so I will be pumping for a short while as our hearing on Rapid Rehousing continues,” she tweeted. “I believe this is the first time it has been done from the DC council dais.”

She might be the first lawmaker to publicly pump on-the-job in D.C., but she joins the badass breastfeeding ranks of other working moms like Larissa Waters, an Australian senator who was recently the first politician to breastfeed during an Australian Parliament session.

Nadeau wore a hands-free pump, the “Freemie,” with cups she tucked into her bra before the meeting. “All I had to do was connect the tubes and turn on the power,” she told The Washington Post. “It was not even that loud.”

People on Twitter were quick to applaud Nadeau for normalizing breastfeeding.

https://twitter.com/jetpack/status/941530660476538880

It’s validating to see a woman so confident in her work and her motherhood at the same time. When I went back to work after maternity leave, I was forced to pump in a one-stall unisex bathroom most of the men in my old company used as their personal shitter. It was disgusting, degrading, and disrespectful. I wish I’d had the confidence to just say, “Fuck it, I have shit to do, don’t look if you don’t like it” and pumped right at my desk. Obviously an inconspicuous, hands-free pump would have helped, but I digress.

Breastfeeding and pumping are normal, natural things that should only be seen as that: normal and natural. Kudos to moms like Nadeau who are paving the way for the rest of us.