New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has had a baby girl at Auckland City Hospital.
Ms Ardern posted a photo on Instagram of her holding the new baby with partner Clarke Gayford.
"Welcome to our village wee one. We are feeling very happy to have a healthy baby girl that arrived at 4.45pm weighing 3.31kg," she wrote in the post.
Mr Gayford thanked supporters in a tweet announcing the birth of his daughter.
Ms Ardern will now take six weeks off on maternity leave, with Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters to take over as Acting Prime Minister in the interim.
She is expected to continue to receive cabinet papers and be contactable during her time off.
Mr Gayford will assume the role of full-time carer of the baby when Ms Ardern returns to prime ministerial duties.
This makes Ms Ardern only the second sitting prime minister to give birth in office, following from former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto who had a daughter, Bakhtawar in 1990.
Interestingly, Ms Ardern's baby shares the same June 21 birth date as the former Pakistani leader, who died in 2007.
Former New Zealand prime minister Helen Clark sent her well wishes via Twitter, saying it was a proud day for her country and emblematic of a "21st century New Zealand".
Ms Ardern's pregnancy had prompted widespread debate about working mothers - some championing her for breaking new ground while others questioned her ability to work with a newborn.
But the Labour leader has insisted throughout her pregnancy she would not be the first mother to go through such circumstances.
In January when she announced her pregnancy, Ms Ardern said she would not be the "first woman to multitask" nor be the first to "work and have a baby".
"I’m just pregnant, not incapacitated,” she said recently.
“Like everyone else who has found themselves pregnant before, I’m just keeping on going."
Before she was elected last year, Ms Ardern made headlines after criticising a Kiwi radio show host for suggesting employers had a right to know if their female employees planned to have children, saying such questions, while appropriate for her in her position, were "totally unacceptable" for other women in a modern society.
The baby's name is still unknown - the couple recently admitted they were struggling with choosing a name.
