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news
Julie-Anne Genter (source Instagram).JPGNew Zealand government minister cycles to hospital to give birth
A government minister in New Zealand has been praised by her party’s co-leader for cycling to hospital to give birth.
Green Party MP Julie-Anne Genter, who is minister for women and associate minister for health and transport is 42 weeks pregnant, making her around two weeks overdue.
As a result, the baby is being induced, and the US-born politician revealed on Instagram this morning that she was using her bike to get to the Auckland Hospital.
Genter, whose Instagram profile says she is “into lively streets, real food, and bicycles,” wrote in her post: “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!).”
The impending arrival of her baby comes four weeks after the country’s prime minister, Labour’s Jacinda Ardern, gave birth to a daughter,
Speaking at the annual conference today of the Green Party, which backs the minority Labour and NZ First government through a supply-and-confidence agreement rather than a formal coalition, co-leader James Shaw said that Genter’s mode of transport to hospital was "very on brand."
Shaw, who will be assuming the health and transport portfolios while Genter is on maternity leave, added that he was "proud to be living in a country where two members of the country's executive are able to have children as part of their job.”
> Over-cautious medical advice may deter pregnant women from cycling
Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.
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23 comments
https://www.citylab.com/transportation/2018/08/why-a-new-zealand-ministers-bike-ride-to-give-birth-caused-a-stir/567913/
Mostly about women and bikes rather than babies.
Looks like he's been banned. Good riddance.
?
Edit: thank you road.cc people.
Quite common to cycle when pregnant in Africa. I have seen women cycle home the day after giving birth while working in Kenya. Didn't seem to do any harm.
Was the fetus wearing a helmet?
*ducks*
The thing about cycling whilst pregnant is that there's no statistics on it. People have no idea whether it's safe or not, so some people think that it's best to be safe and not do it. Meanwhile, this lady felt comfortable enough to try it and without ill effect, so why do other people think they have more information than she does?
Clearly I am wrong. I shall never give up my seat on a bus for pregnant woman again. SHE SHOULD HAVE CYCLED! (BOOM BOOM)
Hmmm.... posts on cycling site to declare that cycing is a sign of stupidity. Throws in some incel-level misogyny and (a curveball this one, as these forms of bigotry don't _usually_ go together) some anti-Americanism.
I think it's safe to say the guy is a troll.
Good god, has incel talk made it into cycling? Leave it for body building forums and reddit. You can also be a misogynist and get laid. Just because someone is good looking (women decide on looks within 5s apparently) doesn't mean they respect women. Bad boys get the gals a lot of the time. Gals then moan that bad boy was bad. Go figure.
Personally I think cycling to hospital when overdue is pretty fucking stupid. Cycling to work is bad enough fully fit.
Where she lives to the hospital has a good cycle path which involves minimal traffic interaction; On that basis, she's more likely to have an accident in the car on the trip to the hospital (and that chance on any given journey is vanishingly small.)
So, Now, Precisely what would be 'fucking stupid' about cycling to the hospital?
Only the minor point of being 42 weeks pregnant.
Whats wrong with that? Nothing wrong with cycling whilst pregnant. I wouldn’t risk doing any downhill or entering a crit, but general cycling on an ebike on off road cycle paths? What’s working with that? Unless you need anti D I can’t see any issue. Probably safer than driving yourself.
It was a coin-toss between 'incel' and 'alt-right'. But those would seem to be the (closely related) ideological groups who would argue a woman has to ask her husband's permission to ride a bike (I suppose Islamist would work as well).
Are you saying that sort of attitude is mainstream where you come from?
Her partner also cycled, someone cannot be bothered to read the article.
Good for her.
NZ police have fined fewer cyclists for not wearing helmets and this trend has been going down massively over the last 6 years to the tune of a 75% reduction according to latest reports. This isn't more compliance to wear helmets it's actually NZ police simply focussing on more important issues.
There are petitions being started to repeal the 'law' and thus people carrying child both in the womb and outside can cycle without being forced to wear a garment proven to harm people riding bikes and hopefully encourage people to want to cycle including kids (90% reduction in child cycling at soome schools) and from that more focus on aiding them to get from A-B safely by cracking down on the killers and forcing police to act when motorists do wrong.
And of course many of us have started rides that have ended up in hospital, but not with so much happiness.
I cycled up to the chemist last week to collect a prescription. But it wasn't for me, so not really in the same league.
That's good but I jogged home from my own vasectomy. Beat that.
I'd be impressed if you'd cycled home!
Chapeau, although I do wonder about the logistics of the return trip!
Presumably that's what the basket on the front is for.
More bicycles and more babies!
This. More of this.