15 NOVEMBER 2018

Hawkes Bay Parents Centre educating grandparents in the community

Who would have thought grandparents could attend antenatal classes tailored to them?

Hawkes Bay Parents Centre is holding a Grandparents Antenatal Seminar at the end of November – a chance for grandparents to learn key changes in feeding, sleeping and parenting for newborn babies.

Hawkes Bay Parents Centre is one of 46 community-based Parents Centres across the country and have been offering support and education for new and existing parents in their community since 1971. They run well-attended pregnancy, childbirth and parent education (antenatal) programmes, on-going support networks for new mothers, and hot topic events.

“Pregnancy, childbirth and parenting has changed over the past few decades. We spend so much time teaching the new parents-to-be but no time teaching the grandparents-to-be. Hawkes Bay Parents Centre want that to change” says Talia Foster, current President of Hawkes Bay Parents Centre.

After parents, grandparents spend the most time with new babies. Grandparents are often one of the first places parents will go for advice and they are the ones parents rely on when they are not around – whether it be in the other room for a much-needed nap, or out for the evening for the first date night in months. It is therefore very important that they are equipped with up to date advice to keep babies safe, ensure advice doesn’t contradict what professionals say, and help to support families in the best way possible.

This two-hour seminar is a great opportunity for all grandparents or grandparents-to-be expecting a new addition to the family to meet other grandparents and ask questions. They don’t need to be first time grandparents or to be living with or caring for the baby regularly.

This seminar is being held on the evening of 29 November at Havelock North Family Centre. Contact Hawkes Bay Parents Centre (hawkesbay@parentscentre.org.nz) for more information or book here https://goo.gl/forms/cogZNjBEXlvPtacS2

Other parent education programmes on offer include the refresher antenatal course: a shortened version of the full antenatal course, with focus on changes in the healthcare system and introducing siblings.

“I didn’t realise how much I had forgotten from the first time, and it was great to share different experiences from the first time that you wouldn’t be able to do in a group of new mums.” says a Parent Centre member who attended this refresher course recently.

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