‘No shame in breastfeeding! Baby’s gotta eat & I had votes,’ Karina Gould says after a swift reaction to footage of her feeding her baby

Canada’s health minister was being grilled in the House of Commons over the country’s plans to legalise recreational marijuana by mid-October, but it was the scene playing out behind Ginette Petitpas Taylor that catapulted the moment into headlines: one row over, during a raucous Question Period, Liberal MP Karina Gould was breastfeeding her three-month-old son.

In March, Gould became Canada’s first federal minister to have a baby while in office. The minister of Democratic Institutions returned to work in May with her son Oliver in tow, introducing him to her Liberal colleagues, including Justin Trudeau, the country’s prime minister.

Reaction to footage of her breastfeeding was swift. “I’m glad I live in a country where this is normal and accepted (as it should be),” a reporter for the Canadian Press said on Twitter.

Gould soon chimed in. “No shame in breastfeeding! Baby’s gotta eat & I had votes,” she said on social media, adding that she was glad to have parliamentary colleagues that were supportive.

Dozens responded to her tweet, many of them thanking her for blazing a trail forward. “Breaking one barrier at a time. Good work Karina,” noted one. “Thinking back to not very long ago, betting there would have a been a major meltdown over this. Glad we have matured and progressed,” wrote another.

Jaime Smith (@marramconsult) Thank you @karinagould @HoCSpeaker for normalizing breastfeeding! Women and work and children can all thrive.

Some seem surprised that a shot of Gould breastfeeding was making headlines at all.

NileLover (@NileLover47) I don’t really understand? Is this another issue? Breastfeeding should not event be discussed? It’s the norm: anywhere and anytime as the baby needs!

Others pointed out that the ability to strike this kind of balance between motherhood and work remains an option for a limited few in Canada. “Great to bring more attention. we just need to be aware most Canadians are not privileged this way w/ a job that provides flexibility nor do they have a national stage to make this popular.”



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Those who chastised Gould for not covering up or stepping into her office to breastfeed were quickly rebuked online. “Feeding your baby ‘takes women backwards’? Using our breasts as they were meant to be used ‘takes women backwards’? No. Shaming women who feed their babies in public is what takes us backwards. Get a grip,” replied one to a criticism of the Liberal minister.

In 2016, Unnur Brá Konráðsdóttir, an MP with Iceland’s conservative Independence party, made waves as she nursed her baby while addressing parliament about an immigration bill she had put forward.

The viral video – showing Konráðsdóttir breastfeeding as she urged parliamentarians to support her motion to strip asylum seekers of some of their rights – led some to criticise media for choosing to focus on what a woman was doing with her body rather than what she was saying at the time.