Growing calls to let mum MPs breastfeed in parliamentary chamber

The cabinet minister at the centre of a breastfeeding debate says she wouldn't nurse her child in the lower house chamber even if it was offered.

Federal parliament is being urged to consider the idea following controversy surrounding new mum Kelly O'Dwyer.

The assistant treasurer was recently told to express more breast milk so she didn't miss votes in parliament.

But Ms O'Dwyer insists she's happy with the status quo, which allows nursing mothers to vote by proxy.

If breastfeeding were allowed in the chamber, she wouldn't partake.

"It's a very personal thing," she told ABC radio today.

"I think every mother would say to you that there are some things you feel comfortable doing and some things you don't."

If a parliamentary committee is swayed, the rules preventing mothers from feeding their newborns in the House of Representatives could change.

More than 10 MPs have had a baby in the past year and the "baby boom" has prompted the procedures committee to consider ways to better support working mothers.

Committee chairman Andrew Southcott says the rules create uncertainty for MPs and put the Speaker in a potentially difficult position.

He touched on Labor MP Anna Burke's experience more than a decade ago when she was told by the Speaker that other members had not approved of her bringing her daughter into the chamber.

At the time, Ms Burke said she had no alternative because of the absence of any child care at Parliament House.

Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young removed her two-year old daughter from the upper house chamber in 2009 following a ruling by the-then Senate president.

The child was heard crying as her mother and other senators gathered behind locked doors for a vote, a situation the senator described as the "most humiliating" of her life.

While mums are now allowed to breastfeed in the Senate, Senator Hanson-Young says there's still a long way to go in parliament supporting new mothers.

"It's 2015 and it's time," she told AAP.

"It's all well and good to pay lip service to women's participation but what we actually need is practical changes like this."

She's also disappointed that scheduled sitting weeks for 2016 clash with school holidays.

Labor MP Clare O'Neil urged committee members to make chamber breastfeeding happen, joking that a child would be the least of parliament's concerns with its array of colourful and eccentric MPs.

"As a mum and MP, it would make a huge difference to be able to take an infant into the chamber," she tweeted.

Dr Southcott said parliament's practice should meet changing community expectations in encouraging women's participation in the workforce and balancing work and family life.

A roundtable on Thursday will invite interested politicians to share their views on options to better support breastfeeding colleagues.