New Zealand MP cycled to hospital in labor, gave birth an hour later

New Zealand: Julie Anne Genter have birth to a baby girl. (Image credit: Photos Instagrammed by julieannegenter)

A politician in New Zealand is making news for how she chose to go to hospital to give birth to her baby and has left people in awe. Julie Anne Genter, a Member of Parliament, went into labor earlier this week. At around 2 am, she rode on a bicycle to the hospital. An hour later, she gave birth to a baby girl. It was a “happily uncomplicated birth”, she said.

In in Instagram post soon after the delivery, Genter shared the details. When she left home at 2 am on her bicycle, her contractions were two to three minutes apart, and they “weren’t that bad”, she said in the post. The hospital was a 10-minute ride from her home.

The contractions grew stronger by the time she reached hospital. One of the photographs Genter posted shows her smiling in the car parking area of the hospital right after getting a contraction. In another, she is happily posing for a selfie with her partner, Peter Nunns.

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A post shared by Julie Anne Genter (@julieannegenter)

“At 3.04 am this morning we welcomed the newest member of our family. I genuinely wasn’t planning to cycle in labour, but it did end up happening,” she said.

Nunns is featured in two more photographs, one with Genter and the baby, and the other, of him sleeping with the baby in his arms.

“Feeling blessed to have had excellent care and support from a great team, in what turned out to be a very fast (and happily uncomplicated) birth,” Julie Anne Genter said.

Genter, 41, represents the Green Party and has previously served as the Minister for Women, Associate Minister for Health and Associate Minister for Transport during the first term of the Sixth Labour government.

In June 2018, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern became the first woman in the country's history to give birth while in office. Ardern is one of the few elected leaders to hold office while pregnant. Pakistan's Benazir Bhutto gave birth while she was prime minister in 1990.

New Zealand has long had a progressive reputation and was the first country to give women the right to vote in 1893 and Ardern is the country's third female prime minister.