Italian minister: Go ahead, nurse babies in public offices

ROME – First, Pope Francis encouraged women during baptism ceremonies in the Sistine Chapel to nurse their crying, hungry babies. Now an Italian minister says there soon will be a directive to public offices making clear that women are welcome to nurse there, too.

Public Administration Minister Marianna Madia tweeted that “nursing shouldn’t be banned anywhere.”

On Saturday, Italy’s postal system, Poste Italiane, said in a statement that nursing isn’t banned in its post offices. It rejected a complaint by a woman, initially posted on Facebook and picked up by Italian media, that post office officials in the northern town of Biella had told her she couldn’t nurse her son and denied her the use of a bathroom to clean him.

Poste Italiane says they’ll contact the mother to address the “misunderstanding.”