Prime Miniature
June 21, 2018 5:40 PM   Subscribe

The Prime Minister of New Zealand, Jacinda Ardern, has given birth to a happy baby girl.

Jacinda Ardern (previously), the youngest NZ prime minister in 150 years, is only the second elected head of government to give birth in office - after Benazir Bhutto.

Ardern will take the government-mandated six weeks of paid parental leave and then her partner will take over full time childcare responsibilities.

Former PM Helen Clark "The thought in 1981, that you could be PM at 37, and unmarried, and having a baby. People would have said 'are you crazy?'"

Leader of the Opposition Simon Bridges "Look, I don't think it's going to do a lot to help my poll ratings, let's put it that way"
posted by Paragon (12 comments total) 17 users marked this as a favorite
 
Congratulations, Prime Minister!
posted by Special Agent Dale Cooper at 6:54 PM on June 21, 2018


Herald: "Ardern had little sleep last night, after celebrating her daughter's birth late yesterday afternoon with a dinner of Marmite toast and Milo last night."

A Prime Minister for all New Zealand.

Also, this is the front page of Wellington's newspaper, which has re-named itself in Maori and uses the headline 'First whanau' [family] over a picture of Ardern, Gayford and baby.

In a rough week, this is good.
posted by Pink Frost at 6:55 PM on June 21, 2018 [11 favorites]


Nice tweet from local journo Morgan Godfery

"Jacinda Ardern arrived at hospital in her own car, with Clarke driving. No Crown limo or special ambulance. Her baby was delivered in a public hospital alongside everyone else’s. No private hospital. No extra special attention. New Zealand, remain your understated self."
posted by phigmov at 7:02 PM on June 21, 2018 [18 favorites]


This is lovely news.
New Zealand, remain your understated self
Rumour has it that she has a chicken in her garden.
posted by unliteral at 7:44 PM on June 21, 2018


I’m here for the post title, which is glorious.
posted by Making You Bored For Science at 8:17 PM on June 21, 2018 [10 favorites]


Post title shamelessly stolen from various sources (e.g. Tearaway and Vietnamese news)
posted by Paragon at 8:20 PM on June 21, 2018 [1 favorite]


Some useful Māori words to accompany the post:

Pēpē
Whānau
Hapū
Pirimia
posted by phigmov at 8:22 PM on June 21, 2018 [1 favorite]




While we're on the subject of politics, can Metafilter please stop displaying adverts of vile former Prime Minister John Key and his financial products !
posted by Narrative_Historian at 2:16 AM on June 22, 2018


It's good to see that women in politics are more able to be mothers these days. I'm no that old, but I'm old enough that when I was in elementary school teachers sort of vanished when they got pregnant and reappeared later (maybe) because apparently it was wrong for teachers to exist as women who got pregnant or something.

We're advancing thanks to the tireless, thankless, and frequently mocked and belittled efforts of women against assholery and primitive BS from men. We're not advancing fast enough, because the forces of assholery as strong, but women are making headway and it's up to us men who aren't total assholes to support and help.

Re: Simon Bridges. Christ what an asshole, and what's worse is that he's almost certain to get a boost from his supporters due to his assholery rather than hurting himself with it.
posted by sotonohito at 7:47 AM on June 22, 2018 [5 favorites]


This is happy and good and I just love my country okay
posted by lwb at 8:26 AM on June 24, 2018


Re: Simon Bridges. Christ what an asshole, and what's worse is that he's almost certain to get a boost from his supporters due to his assholery rather than hurting himself with it.

I can see it playing well with the hardcore, but I'm guessing middle NZ / floating voters are going to be generally pro-baby? Anyway, Bridges is at 9%*, the radio hosts should have asked him 'why do you care who Neve will vote for in 18 years, shouldn't you be more worried about still being leader in 18 months?'.

*Ardern is at 40%, a Red-Green coalition could govern alone, and all is well with the country.
posted by Pink Frost at 6:54 PM on June 25, 2018 [1 favorite]


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