Julie Anne Genter, the minister for women and transport and member of the Green party, rode to maternity ward to be induced

This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

New Zealand’s minister for women, Julie Anne Genter, has announced she delivered her first child, a baby boy, after cycling to hospital.

Genter is the country’s second member of the government to give birth this year, after the prime minister, Jacinda Ardern.

Genter gave birth to her son on Tuesday evening at Auckland hospital, the country’s largest public hospital where Ardern delivered her daughter, Neve Te Aroha, in late June.

“My partner Peter and I are delighted to welcome the new addition to our family,” Genter said in an emailed statement. “I want to thank the support I have had from my midwives, and our public health system.”

Genter, 38, announced in February that she was pregnant, following Ardern’s pregnancy announcement a month earlier.

Having two members of the government pregnant was embraced by many as a symbol of progress for leadership roles and Ardern was the world’s first elected leader since Pakistan’s Benazir Bhutto’s in 1990 to give birth while in office.

“Congratulations @JulieAnneGenter! So pleased to hear of the safe arrival of the newest addition to the parliamentary play group,” Arden said on Twitter.

Parliamentary babies are now allowed to accompany their parents into the debating chamber and swim in parliament’s pool thanks to a push by the Speaker to make the legislature more friendly to new mothers.

Such steps aim to help boost diversity in parliament, where female representations has lingered below half at 38%, and accommodate a baby boom since last September’s election, when two women Labour members with infants also took up their seats.

Genter will take three months’ leave from her job, which also includes transport and health portfolios, and return to work in mid-November.

She was praised bu supporters of her progressive Green party for cycling to hospital for a medical inducement on Sunday.

“Beautiful Sunday morning for a bike ride, to the hospital, for an induction to finally have this baby,” Genter said on Instagram alongside photos of her riding her bike at 42 weeks pregnant, accompanied by the hashtag #bicyclesarethebest.