New Zealand minister cycles to hospital to deliver baby

WELLINGTON - New Zealand’s minister for women has been making headlines after she cycled to a hospital on Sunday to give birth.

Julie Anne Genter, who is also the South Pacific country’s associate minister for health and transport, posted photographs on social media of her “mostly downhill” trip to the hospital while at full term.

Beautiful Sunday morning for a bike ride, to the hospital, for an induction to finally have this baby. This is it, wish us luck! (My partner and I cycled because there wasn’t enough room in the car for the support crew... but it also put me in the best possible mood!) #42weekspregnant #cycling #bicyclesarethebest

A post shared by Julie Anne Genter (@julieannegenter) on Aug 18, 2018 at 3:42pm PDT

She was due to have labor induced at Auckland City Hospital, and is expected to become the second New Zealand government minister to deliver a baby this year, after Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern.

Genter, 38, noted on social media on Aug. 10 that she was “40 weeks + 4 days” pregnant, and “still waiting” to give birth. She plans to take three months of parental leave after the birth of the child, her first.

Genter said on social media that it was a “beautiful Sunday morning for a bike ride,” and that she and her partner, Peter Nunns, had cycled to the hospital because there was not “enough room in the car for the support crew.”

She added on Instagram, “It also put me in the best possible mood!”

On its Twitter account, the Green Party declared Ms. Genter’s bicycle journey to the hospital “the most #onbrand thing ever.”

Our Minister for Women and Associate Minister for Transport @JulieAnneGenter just biked to the hospital to have her baby!
The most #onbrand thing ever. ? pic.twitter.com/ntxWSicDL4

— Green Party NZ (@NZGreens) August 19, 2018

Auckland City Hospital, where Genter is to give birth, is also where Ardern delivered her first child, Neve Gayford, in June. The prime minister, 38, returned to work this month. She was driven there in June by her partner, Clarke Gayford, in the couple’s car, rather than using a government vehicle or a driver.

Benazir Bhutto, then Pakistan’s prime minister, became the first world leader to give birth in office when she had her second child, a daughter, in 1990.

Genter, who was born in Minnesota and studied at the University of California, Berkeley, joined the left-leaning Green Party as a volunteer shortly after migrating to New Zealand in 2006, and she has represented the party in Parliament since 2011. She previously worked as a transport and planning consultant.

She received her ministerial posts as part of the Green Party’s agreement to govern with Ardern’s Labour Party and with New Zealand First.

Public transport and bicycles are popular methods of transportation for Green Party lawmakers, whose policies have traditionally centered on environmental advocacy.