Ingrid Osborn, president of the St. Johns Association for Women Lawyers, and Circuit Judge Howard Maltz cut the ceremonial ribbon on a space for nursing and taking care of babies in the St. Johns County Courthouse on Tuesday, Aug. 12, 2025. | Noah Hertz, Jacksonville Today
Published on August 14, 2025 at 12:53 pm
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The St. Johns Association for Women Lawyers is bringing attention to a room in the St. Johns County Courthouse where people can get a private moment to nurse a baby or change a diaper.
The room opened in the Richard O. Watson Judicial Center at the end of 2019, but the organization never got the chance to acknowledge its opening due to the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
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Ingrid Osborn is the president of the St. Johns Association for Women Lawyers. She says the group is spreading the word about what the courthouse has to offer for people with small children so people know the courthouse serves everyone.
The Association for Women Lawyers held a formal grand opening for the room earlier this week. Along with the ceremony, the group launched a new initiative, placing signs around the courthouse building to let attorneys, visitors and others know that there is a clean, private place to take care of a child.
“It represents what the community values,” she tells Jacksonville Today.
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The room has a key-code lock, a fridge and soon a changing table. Due to its size, the room can accommodate only one person at a time.
‘Ahead of the curve’
In 2023, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a law requiring that courthouses across the state have rooms open to the public for nursing and taking care of babies. Duval County’s courthouse opened one in 2017, and the St. Johns Association for Women Lawyers’ president says she is proud that her county also was ahead of the curve.
Before the room opened, Ingrid Osborn says women had to nurse babies in poor conditions or miss potentially important legal proceedings entirely.
“They were going to their cars, they were going to the bathroom. They were just suffering through,” Osborn says. “Someone who works for the … state attorney, they probably have the forethought to ask and call administration and they will probably get an office. But most people who come for jury duty will have no idea to even ask.”
While it is located in the courthouse, the room is not marked with a sign indicating that it is for taking care of babies. That decision was made to maintain people’s privacy, Osborn says.
People looking for the private room must ask a courthouse aide, who can show them where to go and give them the door’s code.
