Journalists often crowd the White House briefing room expecting the latest news, but now the news is that many of the reporters are expecting.
Steve Holland: “There’s such a baby boom going on in the White House Press Corps that we are always on standby for delivering a baby if necessary.”
CBS’s Weijia Jiang. New York Post’s Marisa Schultz. The Washington Post’s Ashley Parker. Newsday’s Laura Figueroa.
They’re just a few of the White House correspondents who are with child or who recently gave birth.
Five more members of the White House Press Corps. delivered babies during Trump’s first two years: NPR’s Tamara Keith, CNN’s Pamela Brown, Fox News’ Kristin Fisher, CGTN’s Jessica Stone and NPR’s Ayesha Rascoe.
Others are shy of publicity or not yet showing.
But what’s behind this different kind of trump bump?
For one, the moms-to-be are professional women whose careers are in a secure moment as they feel their biological clocks ticking.
Another factor: political timing and family planning. There’s a short window between the 2016 and 2020 election cycles.
Then there’s the matter that being a political journalist is stressful, and, well, certain activities can help alleviate that stress.
Being pregnant in the White House briefing room definitely doesn’t make the job any easier, though.
There are just 49 seats – and it’s not as if competitors are quick to offer up their coveted chairs. At one point, Ronica Cleary tweeted she was “less than enthusiastic about the nature of a room full of people who avoid offering a seat to a woman who is 371/2 weeks pregnant.”
Even the press offices behind the press room are cramped.
With the baby boom, the Christian Broadcasting Network’s small office now doubles as a breast bumping room.
One journalist made headlines when she announced her pregnancy with an apparent jab at the president.
Weijia Jiang’s baby bump was showing at a September press conference.
When President Trump told her to “sit down,” she tweeted she couldn’t wait to teach her child that “when a man orders you to sit down because he doesn’t like what you’re saying, do anything but.”