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Pregnant politician cycles to hospital while in labour to give birth
Published 12:04 29 Nov 2021 GMT
Homenews
And It wasn't even the first time she'd done it!
A New Zealand MP cycled to hospital while in labour at 2am on Sunday, giving birth barely an hour later.
But even more surprising than the fact Julie Anne Genter choose to cycle while having contractions is the fact she was doing it for a second time. She biked to hospital in 2018 to give birth to her first-born.
The Green MP gave birth at 3.04am, announcing the "big news" on her Facebook page that she and her partner had "welcomed the newest member of our family".
The post was accompanied by a series of pictures of her cycling in the dark, along with one of her newborn.
"I genuinely wasn’t planning to cycle in labour, but it did end up happening," Genter wrote on Facebook.
"My contractions weren’t that bad when we left at 2am to go to the hospital - though they were 2-3 min apart and picking up in intensity by the time we arrived 10 minutes later. (I’m smiling in the car park right after one)," the US-born politician wrote.
Genter, 41, added: "And 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. "
The Green party's spokesperson is a well-known and outspoken cycling advocate.
New Zealand politicians have a reputation for being down-to-earth about parenting.
Prime minister Jacinda Ardern famously took maternity leave while in office and brought her three-month-old to a UN meeting as she was still breastfeeding.
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