News

As stories and traditions are passed down from one generation to the next, so too are much-loved woollen blankets thanks to a group of volunteers. SuperGrans Manawatū is celebrating its volunteers having repurposed and edged 300 blankets for pēpē (babies) sleeping in wahakura (harakeke bassinets). Donated woollen blankets are washed, cut to size and edged with satin ribbon. The blankets are then given to Mokopuna Ora for distribution.

There is fun, laughter and a lot of learning, but also a serious side to Turanga Health's bi-monthly antenatal classes. At the rate of 2.2 per 1000 births, the rate of Sudden Unexplained Death in Infancy (SUDI) in Tairawhiti is more than three times the national average. Hauora Tairawhiti Mokopuna Ora safe sleep co-ordinator Kaniwa Kupenga-Tamarama says through wananga like that provided by Turanga Health, she is determined to change that.

Hāpai Te Hauora, the contract holder for National Tobacco Control Advocacy, congratulates Hon Dr Ayesha Verrall as the recipient of the tobacco control delegation in the allocation of health portfolios announced this week.

Finding balance as a midwife was a challenge for Wintec midwifery graduate Tamara Karu but she’s found the perfect mix, delivering childbirth education and working with whānau to deliver their babies.

The problem goes further than that, however. Last week it was revealed that the glacial pace at which the system functions has prevented any accurate evaluation of the progress that might, or might not have been made in reducing the rate of cot deaths, or sudden unexplained death in infancy (SUDI) as it is now known.

Faced with the worst cot death rate in the developed world, the NZ Government set a national target for reduction in 2017 and ramped up measures to prevent deaths. Three years on, is the Government on track? No one really knows.

The tragic death of a mokopuna has prompted a Taranaki couple to lend their weaving expertise to the district health board's newly named safe sleep programme Taranaki Tau te moe.