New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern returned to work on Thursday after six weeks of maternity leave.

The 38-year-old leader spent her first day back at work speaking with local media about motherhood, from her private home in Auckland.

(Getty/Kyodo)

Acting Prime Minister Winston Peters confirmed on Monday that Ardern would move back to Wellington, the nation's capital, on Saturday with her partner, Clarke Gayford, and newborn daughter, Neve Te Aroha.

Although New Zealand law permits infants to be taken into the parliamentary chamber, Ardern told reporters she did not believe it would be necessary, nor did she intend to bring Neve with her to make a statement.

"We have MPs (lawmakers) who have a very legitimate need already to have their children in the Debating Chamber, and they have," Ardern told the New Zealand Herald.

"I don't think that should be something we have to make statements about. It should just be a natural thing," she said.

Gayford, a television fishing show host, will be Neve's primary caregiver while the prime minister is at the office. However, Ardern said the family will travel together to official engagements, including to New York in September, where she will make a speech to the United Nations.

On Sunday, Ardern used Facebook Live to share an intimate video of herself and her daughter, informing viewers that the family is doing "really well" despite having "absolutely no routine to speak of."

The prime minister also flagged a number of issues that she plans to "hit the ground running" with upon her return to work, including trade-related matters.

Ardern, took office as prime minister in October, becoming the youngest female head of government in the world. She is the second woman to give birth while serving as prime minister, after Benazir Bhutto, Pakistan's prime minister in the 1980s and 1990s.