The annual Women’s Conference on the campus of Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, is being held on April 30-May 1. The university has stated that babies and children are not allowed to attend.
A notice on the conference’s webpage states that: “The BYU Women’s Conference is designed for women and men age 16 and older. Infants and young children, including nursing infants, cannot be accommodated in the session rooms, overflows, including the Marriott Center (and its concourses) and evening service and cultural events. We acknowledge that this will prevent some of you from participating on campus with us, we hope you will take advantage of the delayed broadcasts offered through BYU Broadcasting, past broadcasts currently available on BYUtv, broadcasts that are available on lds.org, and the online transcripts.”
Nataly Wixom-Burdick, who is a member of the church and has an 11-month-old baby, told The Salt Lake Tribune: “It’s just really bizarre that at a conference about family and womanhood that they wouldn’t allow nursing children to be there. You’d think that a women’s conference would be aware of the struggles that mothers, especially nursing mothers, go through.”
BYU spokeswoman Carri Jenkins told the local newspaper that the decision was made “after considering the logical and safety constraints in place and considering the needs of all conference participants.”