Clarke Gayford (C) claps holding his daughter Neve Te Aroha Ardern Gayford, as his partner Jacinda Ardern, Prime Minister of New Zealand speaks during the Nelson Mandela Peace Summit September 24, 2018 in New York. AFP / Don EMMERT
UNITED NATIONS: Jacinda Ardern knows all about juggling her role as a mother with the requirements of her job.
The prime minister of New Zealand has brought her infant daughter to the United Nations' annual gathering of world leaders. Mother and daughter have been spotted together inside the assembly hall.
She says she's a breastfeeding mother and needs to keep her daughter alive.
"I'm combining my role as a mum and also as a leader and it is entirely possible to do both," Ardern said Wednesday. "She comes to functions with me. So, politicians love holding babies."
Baby Neve was born in June.
Ardern giving birth while in office was a point of contention before the election. Television hosts asked her about her plans for children and she said she was happy to talk about it, but that it was broadly an unacceptable question for women in the workplace.
Her answers resonated with many people around the world.
Ardern is just the second elected world leader in modern times to give birth while in office. The last female politician to give birth while heading a government was the late Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, who gave birth to her daughter Bakhtawar in 1990.
