Ardern lauds Kate’s powers of recovery
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, whose own baby is due in June, has talked of her admiration for the Duchess of Cambridge, who appeared in public just seven hours after giving birth.
‘‘I’m absolutely marvelling at the fact she gave birth at UK time 11am and there she is, well just standing up.
‘‘She’s upright in the public eye. She’s incredible, particularly given she has such terrible pregnancies.’’
Kate was under ‘‘enormous’’ pressure to appear in public with the new baby, Ardern said.
When she was in the UK, she had spoken to some journalists who told her reporters had been camping for days outside St Mary’s Hospital in London, where Kate gave birth to her and Prince William’s third child at 10pm Monday (NZT).
‘‘The pressure I can only imagine, but wonderful to hear [it’s a] healthy baby. That means New Zealand can now talk about the gift that it will be sending off,’’ Ardern said.
Those presents included something from one of her family members.
‘‘We’ve got a collection of New Zealand children’s books, also a wool blanket made with New Zealand wool and I’ve had a family member of mine whip together a little personal gift. It’s a little white linen romper, with a buzzy bee liner on it.’’
It was made by her sister-in-law, who was excellent at sewing, Ardern said.
Of her own pregnancy, she said: ‘‘You would be amazed at how many people come up to me and just hover their hands near my person and make a prediction [about her baby’s gender].’’
Asked about what colour baby clothes she would like for her baby, Ardern said: ‘‘I would like a generic colour . . . Nothing with a corporate logo, I’m getting a lot of corporate logo onesies.’’
People were not touching her baby bump as often as she had expected.
‘‘I thought it would happen more often.
‘‘For instance on this trip (to Europe and the UK) I got only one encounter with a belly rub . . . It doesn’t bother me in the slightest. It doesn’t, it really doesn’t. On marae I get quite a bit of belly rubbing.’’