Gayford said staffers even fashioned an ID badge for Neve.
"I wish I could have captured the startled look on a Japanese delegation inside UN yesterday who walked into a meeting room in the middle of a nappy change," Gayford tweeted. "Great yarn for her 21st."
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After Ardern spoke, she took the reins of little Neve. Photos of the happy fam lit up social media and drew accolades from some.
Samantha Power, former US Ambassador to the UN under President Barack Obama, tweeted that "I cannot stress how much the @UN — and the governments that comprise it — need this."
I cannot stress how much the @UN - and the governments that comprise it - need this. https://t.co/d9NHkms96R
— Samantha Power (@SamanthaJPower) September 25, 2018
UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said Neve was more than welcome to the event.
"Prime Minister Ardern is showing that no one is better qualified to represent her country than a working mother," Dujarric told Reuters. "Just 5 percent of the world's leaders are women, so we need to make them as welcome here as possible."
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Because everyone on twitter's been asking to see Neve's UN id, staff here whipped one up.
— Clarke Gayford (@NZClarke) September 24, 2018
I wish I could have captured the startled look on a Japanese delegation inside UN yesterday who walked into a meeting room in the middle of a nappy change.
Great yarn for her 21st. pic.twitter.com/838BI96VYX
Ardern is only the second woman to have a baby while holding the highest office of her country – Benazir Bhutto gave birth in 1990 while serving as prime minister of Pakistan. Ardern took six weeks off after Neve's birth, leaving the duties of running the nation of 4.7 million people to Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters.
Ardern, 38, is the youngest prime minister in her nation's history and only the third woman. New rules for ministers travelling overseas allow those with a baby to take a nanny at taxpayer expense. Ardern, however, says she won't travel with Neve on the government tab.
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She told the New Zealand Herald she was also paying for Gayford's travel because there were few events in New York that called for a plus-one.
"There is no spousal program for this, so we just made a judgment call that we would cover his travel for this trip," she said. "He will be going to some things, but he's primarily travelling to care for Neve."
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