This article was reported by Jodi Kantor, Kate Zernike and Catrin Einhorn and written by Ms. Kantor.

NO ONE HAS ever tried to combine presidential politics and motherhood in quite the way Sarah Palin, is doing, and it is no simple task. Recently, the criticism she feared in Alaska, where as governor she kept her pregnancy secret for months, has exploded into a national debate.
From blogs read across the nation to local school parent-teacher meetings, Americans cheer and assail her. Many are thrilled to see a child with Down syndrome in the spotlight, but some accuse her of exploiting her baby for political gain.
Viewpoints aside, Ms. Palin’s 4-month-old son, Trig Paxson Van Palin, has given her a powerful message in her run for America’s vice-presidency. Other candidates kiss strangers’ babies; Ms. Palin has one of her own. He is tangible proof of Ms. Palin’s anti-abortion convictions, which have rallied social conservatives, and her belief that women can balance family life with ambitious careers.
Trig has had an unexpected effect on his mother’s political fortunes. Before her son was born, Ms. Palin went to extraordinary lengths to ensure that his arrival would not compromise her work. First she hid the pregnancy. A month before her due date, she traveled to Texas to give an important speech, delivering it even though her amniotic fluid was leaking. Three days after giving birth, she returned to work.
With Trig in her arms, Ms. Palin has risen higher than ever. Senator John Mc- Cain, the Republican nominee for president, says he selected her as his running mate because of her image as a reformer, but she is also making motherhood an explicit part of her appeal, running as a self-proclaimed “hockey mom. She has gone from hiding her pregnancy from those closest to her to toting her infant on stage at the Republican National Convention.
Trig had arrived in the world a month early, so at a party to celebrate the baby in May, Ms. Palin rocked her newborn as her closest friends, sisters, even her obstetrician presented her with a meal, presents and blue-and-white cake.
Most had learned that Ms. Palin was pregnant only a few weeks before. Struggling to accept that her child would be born with Down syndrome and fearful of public criticism of a governor’s pregnancy, Ms. Palin had concealed the news that she was expecting even from her parents and children until her third trimester.
But as the governor introduced her son that day, according to a friend, Kristan Cole, she said she had come to regard him as a blessing from God. “Who of us in this room has the perfect child-” said Ms. Palin, who declined to be interviewed for this article.
After an amniocentesis, a prenatal test to identify genetic defects, Ms. Palin had learned the results. As her older sister, Heather Bruce, said, Ms. Palin “likes to be prepared.” With her husband, Todd, away at his job in the oil fields of the North Slope, Ms. Palin told no one for three days, she later said.
Once they reunited, the Palins struggled to understand what they would face. Children with Down syndrome experience varying degrees of cognitive disability and a higherthan- average risk of hearing loss, hypothyroidism and seizure disorders. About half are born with heart defects, which often require surgery.
The couple decided to keep quiet about the pregnancy so they could absorb the news, they told people later.
And there were political factors to consider. “I didn’t want Alaskans to fear I would not be able to fulfill my duties,” Ms. Palin told People magazine recently.
The governor began an elaborate game of fashion-assisted camouflage.
“All of a sudden she had this penchant for really beautiful scarves,” recalled Angelina Burney, who works across the hallway from the governor in Anchorage.
Eventually, she told several aides that she was pregnant, and a week or so later, her parents and her children .
On March 5, she shared the news with three reporters. She assured them she would not take much time off: she had returned to work the day after giving birth to Piper, the youngest of the Palin brood. “To any critics who say a woman can’t think and work and carry a baby at the same time,” she said, “I’d just like to escort that Neanderthal back to the cave.”
There was no mention of the baby’s condition. The next day, her office issued a press release, conveying the news in three curt sentences. In private, the Palins slowly started to share the Down syndrome diagnosis.
In mid-April, Ms. Palin and her husband flew to Texas for an energy conference . Days before, Ms. Palin was asked to speak to her peers. Around 4 a.m. on the day of her presentation, Ms. Palin felt an unusual sensation. According to The Anchorage Daily News, she was leaking amniotic fluid. She called her doctor back home. Go ahead and give the speech, said the doctor, Cathy Baldwin- Johnson, who declined to comment for this article.
Ms. Palin was not in labor, and her doctor thought she had time.
“She wanted to get back to Alaska to have that baby,” said a friend, Curtis Menard. “Man, that is one tough lady.”
Trig was born early the next morning, weighing just over 2.7 kilograms.
Ms. Palin’s three-day maternity leave has now become legend among mothers. But aides say she eased back into work . Many high-powered parents separate work and children; Ms. Palin takes a wholly different approach. “She’s the mom and the governor, and they’re not separate,” said her friend Ms. Cole.
Around the governor’s offices, it was not uncommon to get on the elevator and discover Ms. Palin’s youngest daughter, Piper, 6 . “She’ll be with Piper or Trig, then she’s got a press conference or negotiations about the natural gas pipeline or a bill to sign, and it’s all business, said Ms. Burney. “She just says, ‘Mommy’s got to do this press conference.’”
For much of the summer, she carried Trig in a sling as she signed bills and sat through hearings, even nursing him unseen during conference calls.
At her baby shower, Ms. Palin joked about her months of secrecy, said Marilyn Lane, a friend. “About the seventh month I thought I’d better let people know,” Ms. Palin said.
“So it was really great,” she continued. “I was only pregnant a month.”