New Zealand politician cycles to hospital in labour - and gives birth minutes later

In many instances, if a person in labour is rushed to hospital, it’s usually in a four-wheeled vehicle – be it their own car or an ambulance.

Yet for one New Zealand politician, who proudly proclaims “I love my bicycle” on her Facebook page, it was pedal power which helped her give birth to her second child on Saturday.

Green MP Julie Anne Genter, from Wellington, wrote on Facebook: “Big news! At 3:04am 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. My contractions weren’t that bad when we left at 2am to go to the hospital – though they were 2-3 minutes apart and picking up in intensity by the time we arrived 10 minutes later.

“Amazingly now we have a healthy, happy little one sleeping, as is her dad.

“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,” she said.

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It wasn’t the first time Genter cycled to hospital to give birth. Back in 2018, when she was pregnant with her son, she and her partner opted for the bike “because there wasn’t enough room in the car for the support crew”.

That ride was likely a little bit less intense, though, as she was cycling to the hospital for an induction.

“Beautiful Sunday morning for a bike ride, to the hospital, for an induction to finally have this baby,” she wrote on Instagram at the time.

Following her latest announcement, the politician has since been flooded with well wishes on social media.

Fellow MP Marama Davidson wrote: “So happy for you all. Aunty Marama can’t wait to hug (when it’s very safe so not for a while). Congratulations everyone!”

“Congratulations! This is lovely news, Julie Anne,” commented another.

When a third joked that she hoped she “had the bike on turbo the whole way”, Genter replied that, thankfully, “it was mostly coasting downhill”.

“It was a lovely night. I did use turbo to get up the short hill from our house,” she added.

Good to know that while the pregnancy was laborious, the bike ride to the hospital certainly wasn’t.