New Zealand’s Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern gave birth to her first child, a girl, on Thursday. “Welcome to our village wee one,” Ardern posted on Facebook. “Feeling very lucky to have a healthy baby girl that arrived at 4.45 pm [10.15 am local Indian time] weighing 3.31 kg.”
The 37-year-old will take six weeks of maternity leave, and has now passed on her duties to Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters, reported BBC. She, however, said she would remain in charge by continuing to read Cabinet papers during her time away.
“It’s a happy day and on behalf of the coalition government, we wish her and Clarke all the very best,” The Guardian quoted Peters as saying.
Ardern was elected as the prime minister in October, becoming the country’s second-youngest prime minister and the third woman to hold the post after Jenny Shipley and Helen Clark.
In January, she and her partner Clarke Gayford announced that they were expecting a baby. “I am not the first woman to multitask,” she had said. “I am not the first woman to work and have a baby; there are many women who have done this before.”
Ardern is only the second elected world leader to give birth while in office, reported BBC. In 1990, Benazir Bhutto gave birth to a daughter while serving as Pakistan’s prime minister.
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