Headmistress goes back to school...7 hours after giving birth

Dr Wright proudly shows off daughter Jessica
She is determined that the girls at her exclusive school will not be afraid to ‘have it all’ when they get older.
So when headmistress Dr Helen Wright had her third child she decided to personally show that you can combine a top career and children – by being back at her desk just seven hours after giving birth.
Dr Wright, 39, went into labour early in the morning and was back at £9,300-a-term St Mary’s Calne school in Calne, Wiltshire, by lunchtime with newborn Jessica in tow.

Every school day since, she has brought her baby in, breast-feeding her between meetings and letting her doze during the more arduous parts of her schedule.
She said: ‘The day I had Jessica I went to hospital in Bath at 5.45am. I had her less than an hour later and I was discharged three hours later. I felt absolutely brilliant so I thought: why not share that?
‘I was back in my study just after lunch introducing her to everyone! I look after people’s daughters for them so they expect me to be pretty special and an excellent role model.
'Most mothers want their daughters to have the exhilarating excitement of a career they love and the joy of a family. I have that and I want to show the girls at St Mary’s that that is not an impossible dream.’
Dr Wright was once the country’s youngest ever public-school headteacher – at just 30. She has two other children with husband Brian – Harry, six, and Caitlin, three – and did not take maternity leave for either of them.
She said: ‘When I had Caitlin on a Friday, I was back in school by the Monday. I was slightly faster this time as it was baby No3.
'I was very lucky to have another straightforward birth.’ She added: ‘Most women have a choice of taking maternity leave or going back to work and having their babies looked after. Why can’t there be a third way – taking your baby to work with you?’
Jessica, now eight weeks, has been a big hit at St Mary’s, whose old girls include socialite Jade Jagger and David Cameron’s sister Clare.
Dr Wright, President Elect of the Girls’ Schools Association, admits that Jessica’s mellow temperament has made it easier to take her to work.
‘The girls love having Jessica around the school,’ she said. ‘Many haven’t seen a newborn baby before.
‘In our culture, young women are not encouraged to see babies and hold them and talk about them, let alone be aware of women breast-feeding. I think it’s marvellous that I can share Jessica with everyone here.