23 January 2018 - New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern Announces her Pregnancy
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Clarke Gayford announce pregnancy to nation as well wishes flood in
(TVNZ, 19/01/2018)
Ms Ardern says the baby is due in June of this year and her and partner Clarke Gayford found out she was pregnant just six days before Winston Peters made his choice to form a government with Labour.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern looks likely to miss out on the extended paid parental leave period her government introduced.
The policy extending paid parental leave from 18 weeks to 22 weeks passed by the Labour-led government in November only kicks in on July 1.
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'Unexpected'
NZ Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern: Pregnancy 'unexpected but exciting'
Laura Walters (Stuff New Zealand, 19/01/2018)
Like everything the new Prime Minister does, she's taken the surprising news she's going to be a mother in her stride.
Jacinda Ardern found out she and her partner Clarke Gayford were expecting a baby on October 13, in the middle of coalition negotiations.
She shared the news with the country on Friday morning, saying she and Gayford were really happy.
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Childcare
The Guardian view on Jacinda Ardern: pregnant with meaning
Editorial (The Guardian, 19/01/2018)
Of course it ought not to be news that someone with an important job has a baby and then gets on with their work while their partner gets on with the childcare. Men do it all the time. Even some women do, if they are rich and powerful enough to turn their childcare over to paid help. But the announcement by Jacinda Ardern, the prime minister of New Zealand, that she will have a child, take six weeks’ parental leave, and then leave the bulk of the childcare to her partner, Clarke Gayford, is still important. It’s an assertion of everyday equality from the first country in the world to give women the vote.
Ms Ardern and Mr Gayford are not exactly a couple like any other: she’s the prime minister, and he’s a television presenter, whose show centres on him killing and eating fish. But their relative prominence makes the impact of their decision greater. Even Mr Gayford’s screen persona as a macho outdoor man increases the significance of their announcement. It demonstrates that they recognise there’s an important sense in which neither of their high-powered jobs is going to be as influential as the work they do as parents.
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Celebration
Baby, burgers and flowers: Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern celebrates pregnancy
Ophelia Buckleton (New Zealand Herald, 21/01/2018)
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and partner Clarke Gayford celebrated their baby news with flowers from the dairy and takeaway burgers.
Ardern announced she was pregnant with her first child, due in June, on Friday.
The couple celebrated the big news in a very relaxed fashion.
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