Our Tūhono programme has recently supported an older māmā, hapū (pregnant) with her seventh pēpi (baby), to give birth to a healthy girl, while also helping her keep her whare and support her other tamariki, as told by her Te Piki Oranga nurse.
Tūhono is an innovative Te Piki Oranga programme that provides kaupapa Māori intensive, personalised interventions for a small number of whānau, designed to develop and support the relationship between māmā (or matua) and pēpi.
One of our beautiful hapū māmā came to Tūhono not long after she discovered she was hapū with her seventh pēpi. Due to her age and the size of baby, she needed some extra support from the health system for the first time.
Our Te Piki Oranga dietician Brittani was a huge advocate and support for her throughout this journey. A referral to Sonia at our Te Hā Aukati Kaipaipa Pēpi First program proved to be a success and our māmā managed to stop smoking during her pregnancy.
We were also able to provide this māmā with a new push chair and car seat through Tūhono, pay for her many and much needed growth scans and offer emotional support through some of the daunting decisions she had to make as an older māmā.
Tūhono also played a pivotal role in ensuring the whānau were able to keep their whare by organising and funding some vital property maintenance. During lockdown and school holidays we were able to assist with kai, and scrapbooking stationary for both māmā and her five young tamariki, as getting out and about was proving difficult.
The māmā gave birth to a beautiful, healthy girl naturally, using the wrap-around team’s support and encouragement to follow her intuition.
Nau mai e te pēpi ki te ao mārama.
