Birth of a child makes importance of putting family first even clearer

Starting in the Vermont Assembly in my early twenties, I have always sought to put families first in my policy agenda, but it has been a challenge to start a family of my own. A citizens’ legislature can make it challenging for a young, elected official to ensure the time and resources to have a child.

On April 13, my husband and I welcomed our baby, Mira, into the world. She decided to make an early entrance, for which we received world-class care from the staff and providers at University of Vermont Medical Center and we are all doing fine.

As I reengage with the Legislature while also thinking about our financial and professional realities as new parents, I feel fortunate to be able to help steward meaningful steps forward on affordable early childhood education and access to paid family leave. These are issues I have worked on for over a decade, but they take on new meaning as I think about Mira’s generation and our children’s collective future.

As the first pregnant legislator in two decades, I lament that the perspective of young parents is underrepresented in the Legislature, though that is changing. I hope to be able to continue bringing in the voices of families struggling to make it all work and to help advance our most precious resource of all, our children.