Situation normal: birth in Beehive

Women who work have babies all the time, including women in some really important positions.

In April, when Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern was asked by the BBC whether she found the endless questioning about the forthcoming birth of her baby – due this Sunday – intrusive, she told Kiwi interviewer Lucy Hockings she was not fazed.

‘‘You know, when you’re only the second person in the world to have a baby in office, of course it’s going to be of interest. I don’t mind that at all,’’ she said.

Pakistani politician Benazir Bhutto gave birth to her daughter, Bakhtwar, in 1990 while prime minister, having had her first child while campaigning in 1988.

In that April interview, Ardern went on to say she hoped that ‘‘some day in the future it won’t be interesting any more’’.

If it does get to the point where a woman leading a country and having a baby is no longer a novelty, we will have come a long way from the state of affairs Bhutto claimed in relation to her 1988 pregnancy, when she said the president, General Zia ul-Haq, had called the election after learning she was pregnant, ‘‘thinking that a pregnant woman couldn’t campaign’’. Of course she could, and did.

But is it even reasonable to expect New Zealand, and the West, to get to the stage where we can view the leader of a country having a baby while in office as a completely normal state of affairs?

Well, yes, it is. Women who work have babies all the time, including women in some really important positions. Sporting superstars have babies and resume successful careers.

Perhaps it hasn’t been that common in the past for those in business or political leadership roles to do so; firstly, because those positions tend to go to people of considerable experience, and, secondly, because women are still significantly underrepresented in the upper echelons of those spheres. The long-held perception that motherhood and a career are incompatible will undoubtedly have discouraged some from one or the other.

But women are reaching such positions earlier – Ardern, at 37, is one of the youngest world leaders – and choosing to have children far later than was once the norm. And rightly, the title of mother is no longer synonymous with ‘‘stay-at-home parent’’.

Ardern’s partner, Clarke Gayford, is to be their baby’s full-time carer. It’s not so unusual any more, and neither should it be. But there are also numerous other ways a woman can be a parent and have a high-powered career – flexible working hours and in-house childcare facilities among them.

It’s understandable there’s a major focus on and excitement around the forthcoming arrival; it’s never happened here before, and the Ardern ‘‘stardust’’ still hangs in the air, long after last year’s confident assumption of the Labour leadership and successful election campaign.

But the fact she’s been able to work right through her pregnancy, with no significant problems, and is determined to remain contactable about serious state matters throughout her six weeks of maternity leave, will have done plenty to normalise this situation.

Hopefully next time it happens, perhaps even with Ardern herself, we’ll be able to shrug our shoulders in the knowledge that the woman who is our leader is having a baby while in office and, as she has done, simply get on with it.