As a Polynesian woman, Telesia Amosa, understands that her people love to co-sleep with their pēpi and tamariki. “Historically, the structure of our fāle (whare/house) tells us we’ve been doing this for many years,” says Telesia.
Having this cultural insight while also understanding the potential detrimental implication of co-sleeping particularly with a newborn pēpi, motivated Telesia to provide a safer option for whānau while still allowing them to co-sleep by offering them a wahakura.
"This way whānau are keeping their pēpi safe and are also able to connect with their cultural roots, using an organic safe sleep bed woven by Māori weavers who gained tikanga and weaving skills handed down to them from generations of seasoned and traditional weavers."
Telesia works at the Greenlane Clinical Centre in the Starship Community department. She works as a Pacific Community Health Worker, helping our most vulnerable children and families. Her role includes but is not limited to, assisting the nurses with the immunisation programme with both Boostrix and HPV for schools located in the Auckland DHB catchment area. In addition to this, she also helps run the Rheumatic Fever programme with the nurses and provides cultural support for all children from ‘Well Child’ - to primary school right through to college students.
“I get great joy and satisfaction when I am able to assist families by enabling them to empower themselves to be able to provide and care for their child/children. We deal with a multicultural diverse community and if I can make a slight difference within the families that I work with, then I know that I’ve done my part as a health professional to better serve our community.”
Prior to her current role, Telesia worked at Counties Manukau Health (CMH) at Middlemore Hospital for the Living Smokefree Service as a referrals/maternity and inpatient coordinator. Telesia said, “Working with our hapū māmā and other health professionals such as doctors and midwives influenced my interest hugely to work with babies and children.”
Born in American Samoa, Telesia migrated to New Zealand with her family at six years old. Telesia and her whānau lived in Avondale before moving to Mt Albert which is where she grew up and attended Marist Girls College.
Telesia presently resides in Manukau - South Auckland with her partner and two sons, aged 14 and 4 years old. She is the eldest of three children and the only girl, as well as the oldest grandchild on her paternal side.