County Councilor Attacks Colleague In Newspaper For Breastfeeding

A county councilor in Brazeau County, Alberta, Canada was recently attacked by a fellow councillor in a weekly newspaper for bringing her newborn baby to work with her.

Kara Sunderland, 28, began bringing her child, Taylor, to work with her when the child was only a week old so that she could breastfeed the baby. As Sunderland states when defending her decision to bring her baby with her to her job:

It wasn’t an easy decision to go back to work after a week, but I was elected to do a job and didn’t want to let the residents down. Not only did they elect a woman, but they elected a young woman, and I feel a very strong sense of responsibility about it.

When the rest of the county board learned that Sutherland was expecting her second child, only one councilor objected to her bringing her infant with her when she returned to work: Pat Monteith.

Bob Kitching, another councilor, reveals:

She [Monteith] was agitating a long time before Kara even had the baby, but we took a vote and the consensus was that it was not an issue with us.. Kara even breastfeeds sometimes at the council table, but she handles it very discreetly.

Despite support for Sutherland from the rest of the council, Monteith still felt the need to speak out against her colleague bringing her baby to work. In a move that griped the rest of the council, Monteith attacked Sutherland in the weekly Breton Booster, complaining that the council chambers were being turned into a nursery. Furthermore, she wrote, “More importantly, how do you feel about your tax dollars going to pay someone to care for her own child?”

In response, Kara Pelech, a Catholic school trustee in Edmonton who previously brought her baby with her to district meetings, defended Sutherland, stating:

I don’t think taxpayers felt they were paying for my child care. When I hear that, it sends up a red flag. What, because I have the great gift to bear children, that means I have to stay home?

Sutherland defends her decision to bring Taylor to work with her. She also states that, once her child finishes breastfeeding, she will leave the baby with her husband.

In the meanwhile, the rest of the Brazeau County council, Monteith aside, support Sutherland’s bringing her child with her to her job.

Do you think Monteith acted appropriately by voicing her concerns in a newspaper, or do you think working mothers should be allowed to bring their breastfeeding babies to work with them?