Jacinda Ardern: how’s that for a juggling act?

New Zealand’s leader Jacinda Ardern might be a trailblazer – she’s the youngest female head of government in the world – but she won’t be the first leader to give birth.

New Zealand’s leader Jacinda Ardern might be a trailblazer – youngest female head of government in the world, youngest NZ PM in more than 150 years – but she won’t be the first leader to give birth.

Former ­Pakistani PM Benazir Bhutto, the first female leader of a Muslim nation, had her daughter while in office in 1990, scheduling a secret caesarean to head off her political opponents’ plans to overthrow her. She later wrote: “The next day I was back on the job… It was a ­defining moment, especially for young women, proving that a woman could work and have a baby in the highest and most challenging leadership positions.”

Ardern has her own challenges, a fact she acknowledges in today’s story with Toby Manhire. But thankfully she faces none of the turmoil that churned through Pakistan in those Bhutto days.