First Baby

January 18, 2018 4:25 PM

Jacinda Ardern: New Zealand prime minister pregnant with first child (slGuardian)
posted by Start with Dessert (31 comments total)

But hasn't she been in Labour since 2008?

Sorry/not sorry.

This is wonderful news.
posted by happyinmotion at 4:35 PM on January 18, 2018 [109 favorites]

Is there any precedent for a serving head of government taking maternity leave? I can't come up with any.
posted by the duck by the oboe at 4:39 PM on January 18, 2018 [3 favorites]

But hasn't she been in Labour since 2008?

Reluctant lol at this.
posted by Sebmojo at 4:43 PM on January 18, 2018 [3 favorites]

But hasn't she been in Labour since 2008?

Sorry/not sorry.

This is wonderful news.

*sigh* flagged for fantastic...
posted by Homo neanderthalensis at 4:59 PM on January 18, 2018 [3 favorites]

Not the first, that was Benazir Bhutto who had a daughter in 1990 while Prime Minister of Pakistan.
posted by happyinmotion at 5:22 PM on January 18, 2018 [24 favorites]

This is so great! I love this. I hope she has a great pregnancy and beautiful healthy baby that everyone adores.
posted by ThatCanadianGirl at 5:24 PM on January 18, 2018

Not the first, that was Benazir Bhutto who had a daughter in 1990 while Prime Minister of Pakistan.

That's pretty awesome too. Thanks!
posted by the duck by the oboe at 5:32 PM on January 18, 2018

The article said that Ardern's partner, and father of her child, Clark Gayford, will be stay-home dad to their child. That warms my feminist heart! It's so much easier for moms to hold down demanding jobs when Dad is a full partner at home.
posted by Rosie M. Banks at 5:40 PM on January 18, 2018 [31 favorites]

Does anyone ever feel like New Zealand just likes to dunk on other "liberal democracies" with flagrant exhibitions of how much more enlightened, and simultaneously fun, they can be than anyone else?
posted by Cold Lurkey at 5:50 PM on January 18, 2018 [32 favorites]

Jacinda Ardern: New Zealand prime minister pregnant with first child

I like that "first child" works in multiple senses here.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 5:50 PM on January 18, 2018 [7 favorites]

Does anyone ever feel like New Zealand just likes to dunk on other "liberal democracies" with flagrant exhibitions of how much more enlightened, and simultaneously fun, they can be than anyone else?

Let's check now: am on tea break from government job, am wearing jandals. Yup.

This statement ignores the racism, the income inequality, the huge carbon footprint, child abuse and youth suicide, and our ongoing extinction of taonga species, but there's worse places to be.
posted by happyinmotion at 6:05 PM on January 18, 2018 [33 favorites]

Is there any precedent for a serving head of government taking maternity leave? I can't come up with any.

ahem.
posted by blue_beetle at 6:47 PM on January 18, 2018 [2 favorites]

Mazel tov!
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 6:51 PM on January 18, 2018

Ardern told off people on TV for asking about her reproductive plans. What a badass!
posted by medusa at 6:53 PM on January 18, 2018 [7 favorites]

Is there any precedent for a serving head of government taking maternity leave? I can't come up with any.

ahem.


The Queen is a head of state, not a head of government.
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 7:00 PM on January 18, 2018 [5 favorites]

Great news! Loved this tweet linked in the Gruniad article, Trev (Speaker of the House) is going to need an extra hand. Or possibly a jandled foot to carefully balance another sprog - can always throw the other jandal at the Opposition (not that he'd play favourites mind you).
posted by phigmov at 7:55 PM on January 18, 2018 [1 favorite]

ahem.

Queens are expected to have babies, aren't they? It's part of the job.
posted by pracowity at 8:15 PM on January 18, 2018

I'm very happy for her, but I don't think she ought to give birth while in office.

She should go to a hospital...
posted by L.P. Hatecraft at 8:21 PM on January 18, 2018 [5 favorites]

Officebirth has outcomes just as good as hospital birth, at lower cost and with fewer complications. Ultimately choosing hospital birth or officebirth is a personal choice.
posted by medusa at 8:47 PM on January 18, 2018 [8 favorites]

After a ton of googling, I'm fairly sure that Benazir Bhutto is the only other one (not counting hereditary monarchs, who don't really have a choice).
posted by miyabo at 8:49 PM on January 18, 2018

Although Catherine the Great came to power by plotting to kill her husband while she was pregnant, and then had the kid while empress. So she definitely did have a choice. Not sure if that counts.
posted by miyabo at 8:51 PM on January 18, 2018 [5 favorites]

Is there any precedent for a serving head of government taking maternity leave?

Benazir Bhutto [...] had a daughter in 1990 while Prime Minister of Pakistan

Bhutto didn't take maternity leave though:

'Fearing her opposition would use her time giving birth to replace her, Ms Bhutto travelled incognito to a hospital and swiftly underwent a Caesarean section. She then returned to her job before she could be overthrown.

"The next day I was back on the job, reading government papers and signing government files," she later wrote.'

posted by brushtailedphascogale at 9:41 PM on January 18, 2018 [10 favorites]

“That a woman can be the prime minister of New Zealand and choose to have a family while in office says a lot about the kind of country we are and that we can be – modern, progressive, inclusive, and equal,” Shaw said.

Nice!

Labour PM says deputy Winston Peters will take over for six weeks when baby is born in June

Oh. Not so progressive then.
posted by plep at 11:20 PM on January 18, 2018

Oh. Not so progressive then.

Women in positions of power just can’t win, can they.
posted by third word on a random page at 11:31 PM on January 18, 2018 [24 favorites]

Oh. Not so progressive then.

Winston is a more interesting character than a reductive reading of his policies would indicate. And he quite literally chose Jacinda as PM. I don't think anyone's too worried.
posted by Sebmojo at 1:23 AM on January 19, 2018 [1 favorite]

I would have gone back to work ASAP after having a baby because I hated being home with the baby, so. Progressive is giving women options do do whatever the fuck they think is best for themselves and their family.
posted by lydhre at 6:01 AM on January 19, 2018 [6 favorites]

Don't miss the charming photo in the tweet announcing the pregnancy. Apparently Clarke is the host of a TV show called Fish of the Day. Two big hooks and one lil' hook! Very creative.

Congratulations!
posted by adept256 at 7:14 AM on January 19, 2018 [2 favorites]

As I see it, what is precedent-setting about Ardern's pregnancy and baby is that she is not taking the traditional route for women who are heads of state or government: either no marriage and no kids (like Elizabeth I), or marry a man who is another high-flyer and not interested in scaling back his career to care for the kids, then rely on nannies, grandparents, and boarding schools to raise the children.

Having a male partner willing to scale back his career to care for a child is what is new (and I hope it catches on!). Even now, it's usually Mom who takes the career hit when outsourcing child care is not an option. In this case, it's Dad who is stepping up.
posted by Rosie M. Banks at 8:54 AM on January 19, 2018 [4 favorites]

Yes, this - although there are further options. For example the former NZ Prime Minister Helen Clark was married but had no children, enabling her and her husband to both carry on their careers.

Also mildly interesting that Ardern and Gayford aren't married - wonder how much precedent there is for unmarried heads of government to have children?

third word on a random page: Women in positions of power just can’t win, can they.

Surely "not so progressive" is a comment on Winston Peters specifically? And it's right - there's nothing progressive about him being in power (and which comment isn't really relating to Ardern anyway - but to James Shaw who was the one who called it "progressive"....).
posted by Pink Frost at 1:04 PM on January 19, 2018 [2 favorites]

‘No room for doubt that I can do this’: the Spinoff meets Jacinda Ardern
posted by Start with Dessert at 3:48 PM on January 31, 2018

New Zealand’s Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern, Is Young, Forward-Looking, and Unabashedly Liberal—Call Her the Anti-Trump (Amelia Lester, Vogue)

A step-by-step guide to writing a Jacinda Ardern profile (Madeleine Chapman, The Spinoff)
posted by Start with Dessert at 3:50 AM on February 15, 2018