We are dedicated to fostering a collaborative environment where our birthing community works together rather than in isolation. By breaking down silos we harness the collective strengths and resources of all involved. This approach enables us to tackle challenges more effectively and to implement solutions that significantly enhance the lives of whānau, midwives and all people working in the perinatal space.

Our aim is to create stronger community connections, either in person or virtually, with the aim that there will be a growing knowledge of the support that exists, and that our work creates pathways to show how a need can be met, so that Te Whatu Ora (Health NZ) or other more appropriate organisations can then take on this mahi as business as usual.

Here are some of the successful initiatives we have facilitated over the past few years:

• Community forums held in 2019, 2020 and 2021 – where community members and those working in the birthing community came together to network and discuss challenges, successes, suggestions of improvements. In recent years Pēpe Ora led by the Maternal Health Coordinators at Te Whatu Ora have held these forums.
• Ad hoc celebrations to acknowledge and support local midwives, on special occasions such as International Day of the Midwife, with support of local individuals and businesses. In recent years Te Whatu Ora have been able to provide more to celebrate their midwives and staff along with our support too. This has been encouraging.
• We held a Breastfeeding Hui in 2022, bringing together anyone in our community involved in breastfeeding to discuss how we might collaborate to improve things for the breastfeeding community; out of this hui came a website that provides all local breastfeeding support options in one place http://breastfeedinginthehutt.nz. We have good connections with the coordinator of the Hutt Valley Breastfeeding Network and the Lactation Consultants on the Hutt Maternity Ward and in SCBU.
• Regularly attending other local hui to support those working in the perinatal space and to nurture relationships and collaboration.
• In 2022 we started using the CRM Infoodle; as a part of this, we are building a database that allows our volunteers, midwives and others in our community to connect and communicate via a phone app.  In 2024/25 we were able to start using this and our aim is to push this out to all those working in the perinatal space in the Hutt in 2026.

If you have any ideas about connecting our birthing community, please contact us.

If you are working in the perinatal space and you are not already on our Infoodle database, please sign up below.