Today, MPs will have the chance to debate, and vote, to bring in a system for baby leave for women and men in Parliament. We set the rules for maternity pay and leave for people at work. We’ve legislated for paternity leave and pay. But for MPs ourselves, there is no system at all.

It used to be the case that there were hardly any women MPs (only three per cent when I was first elected) and those women who were in Parliament were older and either didn’t have children, or their children had grown up.

Now, there are over 200 women MPs and many of them are young. It’s a normal sight now to see a pregnant bulge in the Division lobby.

Since 2010, 17 babies have been born to women MPs. No one thinks there’s anything wrong or unusual about that. Yet the issue of what happens when they go into labour, and in the early months of their child’s life, is swept under the Commons’ green carpet.

And it...