Since Labour founded our public health system in 1938, its incredible staff have delivered more than 4 million babies.
Tell us your birthday, and we’ll tell you which number baby you were.
(Or if you were born before May 15th 1939, when free maternity services took effect, tell us the birthday of a younger friend or relative.)
Please note: your baby number is only our best estimate, using New Zealand birth statistics.
Click here to read the Q+A about this tool.
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You were the baby brought into the world by New Zealand's public health system.
I was the baby born in NZ's public health system.
Click here to find out what your baby number is!
See how many people our public health system has helped over the past 0:00:
Since you started reading this page
ago...
prescriptions have been
given out to patients across New Zealand.
Subsidies for prescriptions were introduced by Labour, 5 May 1941.
Today, our Plunket nurses will reach out to families 1805 times, through visits and clinics.
Free maternity care was introduced by Labour, 15 May 1939.
In the
since you’ve been reading this:
people
have visited a GP.
That's almost 34,000 a day.
Subsidies for GPs were introduced by Labour, 1 November 1941.
And finally:
Today, our public health system will welcome 163 new babies into the world.
Will you share your baby number and celebrate our public health system?
Before universal healthcare was introduced, there were no guaranteed healthcare services in New Zealand.
That meant that times could be really tough for those people who fell ill or were injured.
There are about 234,600 women and men living in New Zealand today who experienced what life was like before we had a public health system — and they know why it matters.
"My mum was delivered by my nan’s cousins in a tent while her dad was felling trees at Ruapehu in the late 1930s. At this time, most babies were born at home or in the marae. Mum lived in a small rural community which had been affected by the flu epidemic – I remember the mass graves. When the health system was introduced, people would often ride their horses 20km to Taumarunui." — Kaike
"Before universal healthcare, my grandfather had a very nasty accident. He spent the Depression unemployed and had to rely on the charity of his fellow former Petone railway workshop friends – without the welfare state, there were no other means of support. He and my grandmother felt very lucky to have those friends, and said they wouldn’t have survived without them." — Suzanne
Our doctors, nurses, midwives, health workers and volunteers do amazing jobs, and provide a vital lifeline for New Zealanders when they’re at their most vulnerable.
But under this National Government, there have been $1.7bn in cuts to our health system, and the quality of the healthcare we receive is seriously under threat.
Please share this tool so other people can learn about our health system and celebrate the good it has done since 1939.
If you want to learn more about the Labour Party and what we stand for please click here.
Photo credits
The photos used in this tool are either owned by us, or we’ve been given permission to use them.
Here are the photo credits for images sourced from the Alexander Turnbull Library:
Baby number result page: The Royal New Zealand Plunket Society, Karitane Home, probably mother and baby, [Island Bay, Wellington?]. Evening Post (Newspaper. 1865-2002). Photographic negatives and prints of the Evening Post newspaper. Ref: EP/1957/2161-F. Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand. http://natlib.govt.nz/records/22541204
Prescription page: Dormer-Beck Advertising Ltd. Dormer Beck chemist in pharmacy. K E Niven and Co. Commercial negatives. Ref: 1/2-224515-F. Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand. http://natlib.govt.nz/records/23026108
Plunket page: The Royal New Zealand Plunket Society, Karitane Home, baby, [Island Bay, Wellington?]. Evening post (Newspaper. 1865-2002) :Photographic negatives and prints of the Evening Post newspaper. Ref: EP/1957/2142-F. Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand. http://natlib.govt.nz/records/22782741