Improving the mental wellbeing of wāhine Māori

Tēnā koutou!

Innovation Unit is working on a project to improve the hauora of Māori mothers, and are looking to kōrero with wāhine Māori who have experienced any kind of mental distress from becoming hapū, up to your pēpi being 1 year old and have now come to a better place and are happy to share your story. Your experiences and whakaaro will inform new ideas to better support mothers through this time, which will be then be co-designed and tested with Māori mothers, whānau and health professionals. They will provide a koha for your time and all contact will be confidential and anonymous.

• experienced any kind of mental distress* from becoming hapū, up to your pēpi being 1 year old
• have now come to a better place and are happy to share your experience of what helped
• live in Tāmaki Makaurau/Auckland, Whanganui ā Tara/Wellington, or the Te Hiku rohe/Far North (if you live somewhere else but would like to share your story, they’d still love to chat over the phone or via video chat)
• are available to share their story from June-July 2019

*Mental distress during the perinatal period can include but is not limited to: feeling stressed and overwhelmed, feeling that you can’t cope, feeling down or low mood, strong feelings of guilt, antenatal/postnatal depression or anxiety, bipolar disorder, generalised anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder, phobias and social phobias, eating disorders, postpartum psychosis, panic disorder, and obsessive compulsive disorder. You do not have to have a diagnosis by a health professional to participate in this research.

For more information, or to register your interest in sharing your experience, follow this link 

Aku mihi ki a koutou!

Information on Perinatal Mental Health:

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Supporting the care of neonatal families

The Little Miracles Trust is proud to work alongside the clinical and research teams who deliver expert support to the 5,000+ babies cared for in neonatal units in New Zealand every year. Working with them, we:

• help to get a ‘patient voice’ and direct feedback from those who have been on a neonatal journey
• assist researchers to get participants for their various studies

The continual focus on enhancing the clinical care and supporting practices for neonatal families is a key reason New Zealand is a leader in this field.  Here’s a couple of recent examples of our support for the enhancement of the information parents recieve:

1. The POD survey to increase understanding on the information given to parents at this very stressful time
2. Supporting the PHD study into neonatal care and experiences
3. Providing input, and ensuring parent input, into the working group mentioned in the above article