Launch of new programme with Pacific Health Service

On 21 February, Pacific Health Service Hutt Valley launched one of the many programmes under Kahu Taurima at the Hutt Valley Hospital Maternity Ward.

Pacific Health Service says “the Kahu Taurima team will work with fanau, communities and service providers across the Wellington Region to design and commission new integrated, culturally tailored services and programmes for all maternity and early years.

For a child’s first 2,000 days from conception to five years old, Kahu Taurima aims to:

• Remove barriers and silos in the existing universal service model
• Integrate our primary care, community, and specialist services to improve quality, safety and equity of outcomes.”
  

To celebrate the launch of this programme, Pacific Health Service presented the Hutt Valley maternity team with ie Lavalava’s, new mother care packs, and teddy bears for Pacific mums and babies.

Krystal Williams, the Midwife Manager for Community Midwifery Teams, explained that staff have now more culturally appropriate options to offer Pacific Mama throughout their pregnancy and parenting journey: “Staff will be able to have a Pacific Health Nurse visiting Pacific mums on the postnatal ward, provide them with a lavalava for labour and present them with a care pack.”

“When women feel comfortable, they labour better, so being able to be offered a lavalava instead of a hospital gown will give them a little more comfort embracing their own culture and hopefully creating a calmer birthing space for them. This of course helps babies to be nurtured by a mum who feels more supported.”

The team’s hopes for the future are for “Pacific mums to feel more comfortable in the pregnancy and birthing space, that their culture be respected by others enabling them to feel empowered to enhance their best experience possible”

The Hutt maternity team’s final words are: “The beautiful, caring and supportive Pacific Health Team are a pleasure to work with; their dedication to improving the health outcomes of the Pacific Community is inspiring, and we look forward to continuing our relationship with them.”