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When Stella Creasy MP was pregnant with her first child this year,Candy Apples Archives she said women are being forced to choose between being an MP and becoming a mother. That's because MPs have historically not been entitled to maternity leave in the UK.

Creasy is making history as the first MP to have maternity cover. Three weeks after giving birth to baby Hettie, she's had to come into Parliament to get sworn in as an MP in order to go on maternity leave.

The prospect of a snap December general election was inconvenient for many of us, but Creasy started her election campaign while 36 weeks pregnant and continued right up to giving birth on Weds. Nov. 27. The canvassing didn't end. By Sunday — four days after giving birth — Creasy (and baby Hettie) were back out on the campaign trail.

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Creasy was re-elected and delivered her victory speech with two-week-old Hettie in a sling.

Creasy will be the UK's first member of Parliament to have a "locum MP" who will cover her maternity leave and will vote on her behalf. Prior to this historic (and long overdue) moment, MPs had to arrange unofficial cover through their staff or colleagues.

But, the parliamentary rules in place meant that Creasy still had to come into Parliament to be sworn in as an MP.

"Under current parliamentary procedure I had to go in today to swear in so that I can have maternity leave and Walthamstow still gets a vote via my proxy ...thankfully Hettie not too bothered by the mother of all parliaments," she wrote on Instagram.

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Earlier this year, Creasy spoke out about the fact that she had experienced miscarriages while at work and had done her best to ensure her constituency work was unaffected.

"The day after I found out that another baby’s heartbeat had stopped, I led a public meeting on gang crime," she wrote in a piece in the Guardian. "I even scheduled the procedure to remove the body on a day I didn’t have a constituency advice surgery. Heartbroken by all the years that I have struggled with fertility, I’ve kept these events to myself and made sure my constituents have never been affected."

Kizzy Gardiner is Creasy's locum MP, who began her role on Nov. 18. The snap election in December meant that Creasy had to canvas while heavily pregnant.

"I’m astonished that in 2019 this is the first time we’re doing this," Gardiner told the Evening Standard.

Hear, hear.

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