Storage representative Lan Marie Berg (MDG) told Daily newspaper that she is on sick leave in 2019 and 2021 due to pelvic pain, which she has been experiencing since giving birth to her daughter Ragna Mai three years ago.

This is the first time the MDG profile tells the reason for sick leave. In the past, she explained her sick notes by saying that her body was telling her to stop and the doctor told her to calm down.

The parliamentary representative said he needed a good dose of painkillers to get through the 2021 election campaign.

– That’s not good for me, but it feels very important to be present and do my job in the election campaign. Sometimes you just have to do it, but I really wished I had realized what was wrong and got help earlier, Berg told Dagsavisen.

The MDG profile says that she has received help from a physiotherapist who specializes in women’s health to manage pain, and that she is now able to lift painlessly, live a slightly more normal life and have a way out of the most severe pain.

Women’s health and equality

Berg believes that there is a lack of communication that many women face after childbirth, and points to women’s health as an equality challenge. Now she wants women to receive better follow-up during and after delivery.

This is contextualized by the debate that sparked when Une Bastholm resigned as party chair for the MDGs in August for being too much of a party leader, mother of children and deputy of parliament.

– I have realized that I no longer have extra time and energy. I was too tense, Bastholm explained.

Under pressure

Berg was a member of the environment and transport council in the municipality of Oslo when he was sick in 2019, while he became a parliamentary representative when he was sick in 2021.

In 2019, Berg came under pressure as a result of press coverage of thousands of violations of the Work Environment Act in the municipal agencies for which he was responsible. While in 2021 he chose to step down as a member of the city council after the city council in Oslo resigned as a result of distrust of the then neighborhood council.

In addition, Berg is active in the election campaign in the fall of 2021, where the MDGs are barely reaching the threshold, despite high hopes that they will end up above the threshold.