It's a girl!
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has announced the birth of her first child with partner Clarke Gayford after having been earlier admitted to a hospital in Auckland.
The 37-year-old became New Zealand’s prime minister on 26th October, 2007.
Jacinda Adern becomes only the second serving Prime Minister in modern history to have given birth, after the late former Prime Minister of Pakistan, Benazir Bhutto, became the first world leader to give birth to a child while in office in 1990.
Announcing her pregnancy on 19 January 2018 in a press conference, Ms Ardern, accompanied by partner Clarke Gayford, acknowledged the hard-working mothers around the nation and reiterated her commitment to both her roles as a prime minister and as a future mother.
"We will also recognise that we are very lucky, very privileged, that we're in a position where - like so many other parents - we will be juggling the caring roles, but we are privileged and lucky that Clarke will be able to do that job full-time," she said to media.
"I am not the first woman to multitask. I'm not the first woman to work and have a baby," Jacinda Adern
"I know these are special circumstances, but there will be many women who will have done this well before I have. I acknowledge those women."
The birth of Jacinda Adern's child coincidentally falls on the same birthday of former Prime Minister of Pakistan Benazir Bhutto who, in 1990, became the first world leader to give birth to a child while in office.
According to Britain's Independent newspaper, Ms Bhutto underwent a Caesarean section to deliver a baby girl, yet went to office the following day.
"The next day I was back on the job," Ms Bhutto is reported to have said, "reading government papers and signing government files. Only later did I learn that I was the only head of government in recorded history actually to give birth while in office. It was a defining moment, especially for young women, proving that a woman could work and have a baby in the highest and most challenging leadership positions."
Bakhtawar Bhutto Zardari, who was born on 25 January 1990, writes on her Instagram profile:
‘1st child born to a sitting female Prime Minister!’
Bakhtawar graduated from the University of Edinburgh with a Masters in English Literature and now pursues philanthropy.
She also congratulated the New Zealand Prime Minister on the news of her pregnancy.
