{"id":56979,"date":"2018-01-19T05:02:31","date_gmt":"2018-01-19T05:02:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/?p=56979"},"modified":"2018-01-19T05:02:31","modified_gmt":"2018-01-19T05:02:31","slug":"new-zealands-prime-minister-says-pregnant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/world-news\/new-zealands-prime-minister-says-pregnant.html","title":{"rendered":"New Zealand’s Prime Minister Says That She Is Pregnant"},"content":{"rendered":"

New Zealand’s Prime Minister Says That She Is Pregnant<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n

Jacinda Ardern, who became New Zealand\u2019s prime minister in October, attracted international attention when she denounced television interviewers who had asked whether she planned to have children if elected. Ms. Ardern, 37, told a television presenter that it was \u201cunacceptable\u201d for women in the workplace to have to answer that question.<\/span><\/p>\n

On Thursday, Ms. Ardern announced that she was expecting her first child, due in June. She said her partner, Clarke Gayford, the host of a television show about fishing, would take a leave from his job after the birth to become a stay-at-home parent.<\/span><\/p>\n

Although she would be the first New Zealand leader to give birth while in office, Ms. Ardern, at a news conference on Friday, played down the idea that her case was particularly special, saying that she was \u201cnot the first woman to multitask,\u201d nor the first \u201cto work and have a baby.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

But she admitted that her family\u2019s situation was unusual in some ways, saying that she had suffered \u201cpretty bad\u201d morning sickness during the first three months while forming a new government, and that she did not know \u201chow the government cars would feel about having a baby seat in them.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Ms. Ardern said she planned to work right up until she gives birth and would then take six weeks of parental leave. During that time, she said, the deputy prime minister, Winston Peters, will assume her duties.<\/span><\/p>\n

After that, Ms. Ardern added, she planned to return to \u201cfull duties,\u201d with Mr. Gayford traveling with her and their child as often as possible.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ms. Ardern will be the first leader of New Zealand to take parental leave. Two other women have also served as the country\u2019s prime minister, Helen Clark of the Labour Party, who offered Ms. Ardern her congratulations on Friday, and Jenny Shipley of the National Party, who had children before she took office.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mrs. Shipley offered words of support on Friday, saying Ms. Ardern would be able to juggle the jobs of prime minister and parent.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019ll also surround herself with smart people who\u2019ll help her do her job, and I think it\u2019s another, a groundbreaking, example of what women can do,\u201d Mrs. Shipley told Radio New Zealand.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ms. Clark, a former mentor of Ms. Ardern\u2019s who went on to lead the United Nations Development Program after being voted out as prime minister in 2008, said every woman \u201cshould have the choice of combining family and career.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Social media sites were flooded with celebratory messages from New Zealanders after the announcement, with silence from the critics who had questioned Ms. Ardern\u2019s family plans before she took office.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mark Richardson, the television presenter who set off the debate last year by asking Ms. Ardern whether she planned to have children, has not commented. At the time, Ms. Ardern, then leader of the center-left Labour Party, asked journalists whether they would have asked a man the same question.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ms. Ardern took office after a volatile election campaign, by New Zealand\u2019s standards. The previous Labour Party leader, Andrew Little, quit amid dismal poll numbers, thrusting Ms. Ardern into what she, at the time, called \u201cthe worst job in politics.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

But her candidacy reversed the party\u2019s fortunes, with her Labour Party winning 46 seats in the Sept. 23 election. The center-right National Party, led by Bill English, then the prime minister, won 56, not enough to capture the majority required to govern in New Zealand\u2019s Parliament.<\/span><\/p>\n

The decision about who would govern was left to Mr. Peters, the leader of the populist minor party, New Zealand First, which held the balance of power.<\/span><\/p>\n

After weeks of negotiations and deliberating, Mr. Peters threw his support behind Ms. Ardern, whose call for change and youthful energy invigorated Labour voters.<\/span><\/p>\n

On Friday, Ms. Ardern said she had learned of her pregnancy in mid-October, during the week Mr. Peters announced her as his choice for prime minister, but at the time she did not tell anyone at the negotiating table.<\/span><\/p>\n

Early in her tenure, Ms. Ardern helped pass a bill that extended paid parental leave in New Zealand to 22 weeks from 18, but her baby is expected to be born before the bill takes effect on July 1. New Zealand allows parents to split the allotted leave between them, as Ms. Ardern and Mr. Gayford plan to do.<\/span><\/p>\n

She is believed to be the only national leader in recent years to give birth while in office. In 1990, Benazir Bhutto gave birth to her second child while she was the prime minister of Pakistan.<\/span><\/p>\n

Source:-\u00a0https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2018\/01\/18\/world\/australia\/new-zealand-prime-minister-pregnant.html<\/span><\/p>\n

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