E-news August, 2009

The Winter Challenge is on!

If you’ve noticed an increase in orange across the top of the south, it’s probably because the NPA launched the Winter Challenge last month.

The Winter Challenge is the first of four seasonal public education campaigns being run by the NPA to get local kids eating more veges and doing more exercise.

The concept links seasons to the colour of in-season produce and to relevant sports and activities. So for winter, we’ve gone with orange to link with pumpkin, kumara and carrots, and with basketball and cycling.

NPA programme director Helen Steenbergen said the campaign was easy to get involved with and built on the work already being done in schools and in the community.

“We’ve been out to talking with local families about how hard it is to get kids eating enough vegetables and doing enough exercise. Time and money are big problems – and so is a lack of ideas,” she said.

 “We’ve developed this campaign to inspire and support young local families to realise that doing the right thing doesn’t cost a lot of money or time.”

“The challenge taps into what’s fresh, happening and local. It’s designed be fun for the whole family and lead to real benefits – like extra time, money and piece of mind.”

To promote the campaign, we’ve produced:

• Retro bright orange permanent shopping bags printed with recipe ideas and the challenges

• Reflective snap bands for kids to wear to show they’re in the challenge

• Child-size basketballs to help families get active

• A brand new website healthyas.org.nz to give them more local options and provide a forum for parents to share ideas

• Packs of bean seeds (for the Bang in ya Beans challenge)

• Recipe tear sheets

• posters

Horticulture New Zealand also came on board and provided pamphlets with cooking, storage and nutritional information on orange vegetables. They’ve also let use their great recipe finder on our site.

The challenge kicked off in the first week of term three with bags, snap bands, beans and information pamphlets given to students of 26 primary schools across the top of the south. (Mayfield School, Blenheim School, Picton School, Spring Creek School, Koromiko School, Whitney Street School, St Joseph’s School, Waikawa Bay School, Riverland’s School, Canvas Town School, Seddon School Wairau Valley School, Victory Primary School, Stoke School, Tahunanui School, Auckland Point School, Parklands School, Motueka South School, Murchison Area School, Tapawera Area School, Ngatimoti School, Dovedale School, Lower Moutere School, St Peter Chanel School, Brooklyn School, Tasman Bay Christian School)

We have also distributed a bunch of resources to our partner organisations like Way2Go and WINS.

The Spring Challenge will be launching in, well, spring with green bags, recipes and touch balls and we welcome involvement from everyone working in the areas of nutrition and physical activity. So if you can use the resources in your work, or help us get them into the hands of those who need them most, we’d love to hear from you.

Check it out

Evil Diet Witch

TV personality, author and expert nutritionist Nikki Hart came to Nelson last week to speak at a symposium for local parents of children under 5 and Early Childhood Education providers.

And she’ll be back to speak in Blenheim on August 17.

We know that life-long attitudes towards food and exercise are formed by the age of five.

So to ensure local kids get the best start in life, the Nelson Marlborough District Health Board, Sport Tasman and the NPA developed the ‘Let’s fly’ – healthy eating and physical activity symposium, to support and inspire local parents.

With two children of her own, two television series on her show reel, 13 years experience in private practice, and as the official nutritional advisor for organic baby food company Green Monkey, Nikki Hart is well qualified to speak on the importance of childhood nutrition.

The woman affectionately known as ‘The Evil Diet Witch’ talked about what, and what not to put into lunchboxes.

“It is absolutely vital that kids learn healthy eating habits from a young age,” Hart said.

“I have two daughters of my own in pre-school and it makes me realise that mothers are busy and it is really hard to feed your kids well and do it on a budget.

“I’m going to show them how to feed their kids well – without it affecting their back pocket.

“Healthy food equals healthy kids and if you don’t, well, they are disadvantaged – concentration and learning difficulties. They don’t need barriers. If they can harness that thought of good nutrition, everyone’s going to be better off for it.”

The Symposium also featured experts in the field of human movements discussing fundamental motor skill development.

Nelson loves ya baby!

You could argue that Nelson has officially become one the friendliest places in New Zealand for babies thanks to the efforts of a few health care providers – and the coordination efforts of the NPA.

Victory Community Health, Motueka Family Service Centre, Dr Janice Jolly (Nelson), Family Start, and midwives Celia Rodley, Anna Bannister, Gill Gallacher, Raewyn Kaihe and Ruth Brodbeck were recently been presented with their official Baby Friendly Community accreditation after an 18-month qualification process. New Zealand Breast Feeding Authority manager Julie Stufkens travelled to Nelson to present each provider with their accreditation.

Baby Friendly Community is a World Health Organisation initiative that aims to ensure that all mums are delivered the same supportive messages around breastfeeding. The project has been rolled out in Canada and the United Kingdom, and Nelson is one of three pilot sites trialling the concept in New Zealand.

The NPA was instrumental in bringing the programme to Nelson – but it was the efforts of our service providers that deserves the recognition.

Each volunteered for the project and the rigorous qualification process required them to meet a range of criteria including; providing each staff member with between 3 and 9 hours of training, providing breastfeeding facilities, signage and submitting to independent auditing process.

The NPA applauds each provider for committing to the project.

The WHO and New Zealand Ministry of Health recommend mothers breastfeed exclusively for at least six months. Plunket data shows local breastfeeding rates drop dramatically after 6 weeks (from 72 % to 26 % at six months) when new mums leave the midwife system.

Research suggests that mixed messages and lack of support are major reasons for the decline that sees less than a third of local babies breastfed for the recommended period. The Baby Friendly Hospital initiative, which the Nelson Hospital and Wairau Hospital were both accredited with several years ago, ensures all new mums are given the same messages from all carers in contact with new mothers.

The Baby Friend Community initiative, takes the same principals out to the wider community.

NPA programme manager Richard Butler said it was a big step forward towards raising our breastfeeding rates to meet the WHO and MOH guidelines.

“This provides a consistency of message for the mum so when she’s going from midwives, through to plunket nurses and GPs, there’s a web around young mums as they go through transition,” Mr Butler said.
“In the past, because all providers are coming from different backgrounds, they all have different takes on breastfeeding.
“This is an accreditation process that will see each provider, from reception staff through to medical professionals, giving the same messages.”

Inspirational help for new breastfeeding mothers

Annie Thompson’s personal struggle and passion for breastfeeding make her perfect to help implement the Peer Counselling Programme.  NPA funding allowed Annie to train as a PCP administrator and she will now train women to provide one-on-one breastfeeding support for new mothers.

This is Annie’s story:

Watching her newborn son feed through a tube into his stomach, Marlborough’s Annie Thompson made a pact with herself.

Jake was three days old then. He wouldn’t latch on and even if he could Annie was unable to produce any milk to feed him.

“When I was pregnant I didn’t care if I could breastfeed or not,” Annie said.
“Then when I discovered I couldn’t and I felt a real sense of failure.
“But I knew it was the best thing for him so I made a deal with myself that I’d take the medication, express and bottle feed for 3 months.”

After enduring such a hard and lonely process, Annie said she could understand why most women give up.

And that’s why she is such a strong advocate of the Peer Councelling Programme (PCP) which has recently started across the top of the south.

Annie said the programme would see mothers trained up to go out and provide one-on-one support to new mothers learning to breastfeed.

“If this had been around when I was going through it, I would’ve felt much better about it,” she said.
“It would’ve helped for sure.
“It’s a real feeling of failure when you think you can’t do it. So speaking to someone who’s had a similar experience would’ve really helped out.
“Not every mother has access to networks or feels comfortable asking for help.”

Annie said that making the service available to mums in their own homes would make it much more powerful.

“I think it’s awesome … they’ll feel more comfortable asking a peer than going through the health system,” she said.
“You feel like you’re asking stupid questions and you know your midwife is really busy.
“So coming from another mum, especially one who’s breastfed recently, it’s a huge thing, because it takes away the whole clinical, sterile feel.
“I’m hoping it will mean that women will be able to stick at breastfeeding a bit longer.
“I hope it helps mums who might otherwise give up.”

Despite the World Health Organisation’s guidelines of breastfeeding exclusively for six months, Plunket data shows that local breastfeeding rates drop from 72 per cent at six weeks, to just 29 per cent at six months.

“There’s quite a drop-off rate at 6 weeks,” Annie said.
“It is hard, not just physically, but especially when you get people saying just put them on the bottle.
“Persevering is hard especially if you don’t have support at home.
“You definitely need support to do it.”

Annie had to take the medicine Dom Peridone to spark her milk production and bottle fed for six weeks until Jake learnt to latch on and she was able to breastfeed until 10 months. However after the birth of her second child, Annie was able to breastfeed without problem or need of medicine for 23 months.

The Marlborough Babes in Arms breastfeeding support network joint coordinator and Marlborough Parents Centre president said she wanted to share her story in the hope of inspiring other women to continue.

“If my story can help one person to not give up, then I fee like I’ve done my job,” she said.

Annie underwent a week of intensive training in Blenheim, in May, to become a PCP Administrator, along with Marlborough registered midwife, qualified lactation consultant and antenatal educator Pauline Earle, Motueka Maori Community Health nurse Lydia Mains and Motueka Family Centre nurse Phillipa Adams.

The NPA funded the cost of the course delivered by La Leche League.

The NPA has also secured funding to pay the administrators for the next year.

NPA programme manager Jenni Gane said the PCP administrators would go on to train enthusiastic mums to become peer counsellors to work in their communities and offer face to face support for new mums to encourage breastfeeding.

“The ultimate aim of the programme is to have enough peer councellors trained in the community so that every mother leaving the maternity unit has someone they can contact if they need support for breastfeeding.”

For more information or to register interest in training as a peer counsellor contact the Marlborough Breastfeeding coordinator, Barbara Ryan on 5206211 or barbarar@marlboroughpho.org.nz

Marlborough is a-moving!

Locals who hadn’t exercised for as long as 40 years are now working out regularly thanks to Marlborough on the Move.

The NPA funded initiative administered by Marlborough Stadium, recently wrapped the first Team Challenge after 130 locals completed the 10-week programme with astounding results. Stadium CEO Paul Tredinnick said he’d seen some amazing achievements through the programme that caters for obese, Maori and Pacific Island, and low socio-economic groups.

“We’ve had 130 individuals, who’ve gone from being sedentary, some for as much as 40 years, to exercising three to five times a week for 10 weeks,” he said.
“Some of them weighed more than 130kg when they started. To observe their progress and hear their stories about the transformation it’s had on their lives is just unbelievable.”

 The Team Challenge gets already existing groups, work mates etc. of five people to work together and complete structured programmes that include cycling, rowing, aquatics, circuits and general exercises. 

“In 10 weeks they lost significant amounts of weight but more importantly is that they now have an enhanced self esteem,” Mr Tredinnick said.
“For people to sustain exercise, a major barrier is a low self esteem.”

Perhaps its greatest achievement is that 50 per cent of the participants have continued exercising at the Stadium since the programme wrapped four weeks ago in June. 

“We’ve seen continuation rates of about 50 per cent, carrying on at their own expense or through other programmes,” Mr Tredinnick said.
“That’s huge!
“The intention of the programme is not to create a life-long dependency. It’s trying to kick start them.”

And word is getting out with 150 already signed up for the second programme.

“By the end of the year, there will be over 500 families who are directly affected by this,” Mr Tredinnick said.
“It’s a hugely successful programme.”

Adult Nutrition Survey

The NPA helped drum up support for the Ministry of Health’s New Zealand Adult Nutrition Survey by going on the record for the Marlborough Express.
In an effort to boost response rates and consumer recognition of the survey, Helen gave readers an idea of the questions they would face if asked to participate.

From 13 October 2008 randomly selected adults across New Zealand are being invited to participate in the Ministry of Health’s 2008/09 New Zealand Adult Nutrition Survey.

For the survey to have ‘power’ statistically, the Ministry needs a high response rate. Communique, the company commissioned to conduct the survey, said they needed community newspaper coverage to help increase participation in the survey across the top of the south.

For more information contact the Survey Helpline 0800 78 75 74 or go to www.moh.govt.nz/phi/surveys/nzns