Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern talks motherhood on NBC's Today Show

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has been interviewed on national television in the United States, appearing on NBC's Today while in New York for the United Nations General Assembly.

Ms Ardern told the breakfast TV show she had to apologise in advance to fellow passengers, should baby Neve struggle with the long haul flight to New York.

"She is a good baby, I can't complain," Ms Ardern said.

"There's that look though, that you get when you walk onto a plane with a little one, that stare from other passengers which I felt very conscious of."

"I actually did apologise in advance."

Ms Ardern told the show that she'd gained insight into motherhood from her sister, who has had two children.

"It's met my expectations. The joy, though, has far surpassed expectations."

"My appreciation of parents, mothers, and solo mothers particularly [and] parents who do it on their own, my appreciation for that has increased tenfold."

Ms Ardern also explained how she manages the coalition government, which the hosts compared to US Senators Bernie Sanders and Ted Cruz governing together.

"We've got three parties together in our coalition government and actually we do have things we really share in common."

"We have principles and beliefs that are in common and we use those as our platform together - our focus on making sure that New Zealanders are getting decent health, decent education and the environment is doing well. So we build on that."

The hosts closed out the show by asking Ms Ardern what she'd say if she had five minutes with US President Donald Trump, who is also in New York for the General Assembly.

"I would just talk about New Zealand. I'd like to think that we're exemplars and we've got a record that we can be proud of. So I'd probably just talk about us."

Newshub.