Michelle Duff
When my baby was six weeks old, I had barely left the house. Reasons for this included but were not limited to: being bonetired, having a sore puku after a c-section birth; because my boobs were either attached to a breast pump or felt like they were on fire; and because there was a very real risk of my eyeballs seizing the chance to escape from my zombiefied face and bounce off down New North Rd.
‘‘All the better to see you with,’’ they would have yelled, gleefully, in search of a new owner who didn’t pop them awake every 45 minutes to change the baby, feed the baby, check the baby was breathing, or just pointlessly gaze at the baby for hours because he was the most beautiful thing to have ever existed.
This week, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern returns to work after six weeks of maternity leave. Speaking with Stuff on Wednesday, she said the weeks since Neve’s birth in June had been a ‘‘continuous blur’’.
‘‘This is the second time I’ve had makeup on in six weeks,’’ she told journalist Alison Mau in a candid moment before more than a dozen media outlets traipsed into her home in Sandringham, Auckland. ‘‘I just haven’t bothered with any of that.’’
I think it’s amazing the prime minister has given birth while in office. It breaks down gender stereotypes, and sends an incredibly empowering message to women and girls about what’s possible.
Ithink we should all be proud to live in a country in which only the crustiest dinosaurs are crying into their Weet-bix over it. But as someone for whom the pure pain and joy of new motherhood is still all too fresh (it’s