News

Join Edward Cowley aka ‘Buckwheat’ introducing and having insightful kōrero with Nikau Reti-Beazley, a talented young tāne Māori making a difference in the SUDI prevention space through Tāne Ora.

A newly released maternity mortality report has found unacceptable levels of maternal deaths for specific ethnic groups. In the release of its 14th annual report, the Perinatal and Maternal Mortality Review Committee (PMMRC) found babies of Māori, Pacific and Indian mothers aged less than 20 years were still more likely than babies of NZ European mothers to die in pregnancy or within the first 28 days.

Te hiranga mana taurite me te ora / Excellence in Health Equity and Wellbeing award winner is… Taranaki Tau to moe This initiative is a sudden unexpected death in infancy (SUDI) prevention programme supported by Maternity and Te Pa Harakeke (Māori Health Team). It delivers improved education, information and support to whānau through the use of locally woven and sourced wahakura to support safe sleep risk-reduction and other health messages.

A New Zealand study has found that nearly half of families struggle to access healthy food in their child’s first year of life. The study, which looks at the effects of food hardship on pre-schoolers nutrition, has been completed by The University of Auckland and the University of Otago Wellington.

Every second Monday night they gather in a little hall between Napier and Hastings to weave flax baskets that save lives. Sometimes there’s seven of them, sometimes just two. For the past four years, this small band of women has been weaving wahakura, the woven flax/harakeke baskets donated to mums who have given birth at Hawke’s Bay Hospital.

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.