Māmā and pēpi feel at home with kaupapa Māori care

Sarai and Māreikura

Sarai Tuhua lives in Whakatū, Nelson – a long way from her family in Rotorua. When her fourth child Māreikura was born she sought out kaupapa Māori support through the Tamariki Ora service.

This was the start of her relationship with specialist nurse and lactation consultant Debbie Kotua, who became Sarai’s clinician when Māreikura was a few weeks old.

 “I wanted to have a kaupapa Māori health service looking after me and my newborn this time round,” says Sarai.

 “I don’t have much whānau here in Nelson, and I felt this was really important for me. The service Debbie provided turned out to be the best I’ve experienced. It just made me feel so comfortable even though I’m a long way from my own whānau.”

 Sarai loved the way Debbie came to her house for appointments.

 “I didn’t have to pick up my newborn and take her out to a clinic – Debbie visited me in my home which really helped.”

 Sarai had a lower milk supply than she’d experienced with her previous children. She worried that Māreikura was not gaining weight and needed reassurance that everything was OK.

 “It just was not as easy as with the other three, and I did get a bit panicky.”

 Debbie helped with close supervision and monitoring of both māmā and pēpi, and had plenty of tips and advice on breastfeeding and nutrition.

 “Debbie visited whenever I needed her, and she really went the extra mile. She was accessible by phone, even if she couldn’t get to see me.

 “She watched me feed, gave me information on different recipes to help boost my supply, and built my confidence up that everything was OK. She was very non-judgemental – I felt very comfortable when she visited me in my house.”

 Sarai said one of the biggest advantages of using a kaupapa Māori service was Debbie’s awareness of Sarai’s needs and how best to help her manage any problems.

 “Debbie was just like an auntie – in fact I think Māreikura thinks she is an auntie! She made me feel like my child was special, even though I know she has many others to look after!”

 Māreikura is now two and a half years old. Debbie is still available for the toddler’s Well Child checks and she and Sarai keep in touch by phone and text in between visits.

 “Debbie is fabulous,” says Sarai. “She’s just very good at her job!”

Manu Ora takes flight

Manu Ora takes flight

Today, Wairau’s new Manu Ora healthcare service is open and giving local whānau a new, high-quality and culturally appropriate way to improve their hauora. The service is a partnership between Nuku Health and Te Piki Oranga, and is supported by Marlborough Primary Health and Rangitane o Wairau.

The service’s name ‘Manu Ora’, represents a bird taking flight after achieving hauora (wellbeing). 

Manu Ora is a charitable organisation with a small healthcare team dedicated to providing quality care within a kaupapa Māori model and committed to te Māori me ngā tikanga Māori. The service is subsidised for Te Piki Oranga whānau, Community Services Card holders and other whānau who meet the enrolment criteria.  

‘We are committed to reducing the inequities in both access to primary health care and the health outcomes for our highest need patients in Wairau, particularly our Māori community,’ says Manu Ora's Sara Simmons.

‘We strive to create an environment that is caring, respectful, empathic and collaborative with our patients and their support networks, and supportive, stimulating and rewarding for our kaimahi (staff).’

The Manu Ora team will work closely with each other, alongside patients, to ensure every staff member can provide high-quality and ongoing care.

When a patient first signs up, they will be offered an extended enrolment appointment with a nurse and a GP from the team. Following this, a coordinated management plan will be developed and documented to ensure each patient’s health needs are met.

The Manu Ora team also aims to act as health advocates for their patients, and to go the extra mile to ensure their health needs are met.

You can book an appointment in advance or drop into the walk-in clinic (where patients are prioritised according to how urgent their medical treatment needs are).

Call Manu Ora on 03 577 5810 or drop into 219 Howick Road, Wairau.

Manu Ora’s guiding whakataukī

Mā te huruhuru, ka rere te manu

Me whakahoki mai te mana ki te whanau, hapū, iwi.

Kia korowaitia aku mokopuna kit e korowaitanga hauora.

Adorn the bird with feathers so it can fly and return the mana to us.

Let our future generations be embraced in good health.

Tūhono supports mothers of all ages

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.

Pēpi Comes First For Naomi. Smoke Free and Loving It

A young woman’s strength to quit smoking for the sake of her unborn baby was celebrated with a special gift and acknowledgment. Naomi Te Kiri’s was supported to quit smoking with the guidance of her quit coach Sonia Hepi Treanor.

Sonia and Naomi came together through Pēpi First, a free programme that supports pregnant women to quit smoking and rewards them with grocery vouchers along the way.

“It was such a challenge to quit, the hardest thing I’ve ever done. Having a quit coach beside me was the 20% extra I needed alongside the 80% I put in myself,” Naomi says.

Sonia, Te Hā Pūkenga Manaaki of Te Piki Oranga Māori Wellness Services, says that the Pēpi First model of one-on-one support is key to success, especially for hapū mama.

“It’s all about building relationships and trust. We continue to support women for six weeks once pēpi is born but usually find that if a wahine is smoke-free in the second or third trimester she is usually smoke-free post-partum,” Sonia says.

Naomi is gifted donated a beautiful flax basket designed for the burial of a pēpi’s whenua (placenta) and pito (umbilical cord) by Flax Farewells for going the extra mile to honour a pēpi who is growing inside.