The Blair Fatherhood Project

Time was when maternity business suits were a huge deal for expectant mothers, a major advance over the baby-doll frocks that most pregnant women were stuck with and acknowledgment that women could be both professionals and pregnant.

Now, years after the big breakthroughs--guaranteed maternity leave, pregnant Demi Moore’s nude magazine cover, and baby strollers with built-in cup holders, wouldn’t you know that the guys want in on the deal.

Even Tony Blair, Britain’s first father, is talking about taking some time off when his fourth child, due next month, is born. As Cherie Booth, a.k.a. Mrs. Blair, put it recently, if the Finnish prime minister could take off a whole week to help with his newborn daughter, why not Tony? Indeed.

After testing the political waters, Blair has announced he will go into “holiday mode” for a time after the baby arrives, canceling public engagements to change nappies and burp the baby. He concedes, “I would be kidding you if I was to say [that] . . . I’m not going to pick up the phone, I’m not going to talk to anyone. . . . I have to run the country. That still has to go on.” A little anxious are we, Tony?

Here’s a tip from every new mother who has, for a time, left a desk piled high with correspondence for piles of dirty diapers: It will still be there when you get back. That pesky country threatening to cut off diplomatic relations? Those rumblings of labor unrest? The growing wage gap? They all will wait.