Giving birth to a baby and the immediate hazy, wonderful, exhausting, terrifying aftermath is an amazing experience.
Imagine seven weeks after that day, you head back into work...with your new little boy or girl.
This is exactly what New Zealand's prime minister Jacinda Ardern did this week.
In an interview with The Guardian, Jacinda elaborated on what her usual workday is now like, as a working mum.
Her office tea-room has been changed into a baby changing room for Neve Te Aroha, her daughter.
Jacinda's day at the office now has breastfeeding scheduled in every three hours, and this sometimes takes place mid-briefing.
“We’re still a very busy workplace obviously and there’s a lot going on, but you get these small moments where I will break to feed Neve and I will continue to be briefed while I am doing that, but it just means that probably the atmosphere feels a bit different,” she explains.
Jacinda Ardern returned to work on Thursday, six weeks after she gave birth to her first child. "I'm not going to pretend that I have the same lot as every other woman," she said, adding that she was in a "very, very lucky" and "privileged" position. https://t.co/cafKKp0VPe
— The New York Times (@nytimes) August 2, 2018
Jacinda hit headlines recently for a different reason - the NZ state broadcaster Television New Zealand were forced to apologise when they posted a video of Jacinda breastfeeding in public online.
According to the NZ Herald, the video received a lot of criticism, however Founders of Mothers Helpers Kristina Paterson released a statement saying, ''given the strict rules for filming little Neve have been put in place by the speaker, it's clear that there was a violation of privacy and that any filming of the Prime Minister with her baby should be only at the Prime Minister's expressed consent.''
Jacinda as made it clear that she wants to do whatever she can to make her situation work for her daughter and her country.
“If I was in a different set of circumstances I would have done that transition differently. But I have the privilege of doing this job and I have to say the privilege of being a mother too. So I am making the combination I have work for us.”
We take our hats off to her - but what do you think of going back to work after several weeks?
