A BREASTFEEDING mother’s fight to be excused for jury service has prompted a call for automatic maternity exemption.

Zoe Stacey, 36, was told that giving birth to baby William in February was not an excuse not to sit on a jury at Winchester Crown Court.

She appealed the decision and the Jury Central Summoning Bureau told her that she could defer for only 12 months, but the mother-of-two wishes to breastfeed her son for longer than a year. She was eventually excused from service.

Zoe suffered a number of illnesses after birth, with both she and William contracting neonatal mastitis and needing to go to hospital for three courses of antibiotics.

Zoe, who lives in Fair Oak, said: “I didn’t think there would be an issue, I explained to them that I had a baby in mid-February and I was breastfeeding, I thought that would be straight forward.”

The 36-year-old said that she found the process “quite stressful”. Her appeal gained nationwide attention, with parents and a number of news outlets.

“I do feel like maybe if there hadn’t been that anger I wouldn’t have got that result. I think if they want women to defer for 12 months they should say that in their guidance," she said.

“I didn’t realise it was such a problem, a lot of people were saying they had similar issues – it is not a one off."

Zoe added: “I would like there to be a blanket decision for anyone on parental leave to be excused or deferred.”

Her battle has now seen calls from MPs for the Ministry of Justice to change the rules for breastfeeding mothers and people on maternity and other statutory parental leave.

Shadow solicitor general Ellie Reeves has called for the rules to be changed so that women on maternity leave are automatically exempt from jury service.

In a letter to the Lord Chancellor, Robert Buckland QC, in December, Ms Reeves criticised the Government for not having a formal exemption procedure in place.

Ms Reeves wrote another letter to the Secretary of State last month. She said: “An automatic exemption without any fuss once requested for those who are pregnant, breastfeeding or on parental leave should be immediately enacted to prevent this from discriminating women again. This would prevent the stress and effort of going through a cold system when the focus of a mother should be on reducing anxiety and providing for a child.”

She added: “Such a system I believe would not be complicated or costly and would assist women up and down the country.”

Following Zoe’s experience, a Ministry of Justice spokesperson said: “While it is vital juries represent a cross-section of society, we are urgently reviewing our guidance to make it clearer that new mothers should be able to serve at a time that is right for them.”