This first time event on 15/10/2021 and was a great success, it was very nice to be there with all those beautiful pregnant women.
To start, Vanessa and Jan, from Baby Boxes talked with the pregnant women and demonstrated all the items included in the baby boxes they provided. To visit the website or contact Baby Boxes Queenstown lakes click here.
The floor was then passed on to Lisa, who is the Mental Wellbeing Navigator, from Central Lakes Family Services, where she presented some of the services that Family Services offers, including Central Lakes Perinatal Support:
Ruth Wilson from the Salvation Army was the third to have the floor, on the night and she spoke about SPACE, which is mainly aimed at first-time parents and their babies from 4 months, and was designed to support parents during the first year of their children’s lives. The meetings are weekly at Salvation Army, lasting approximately 20 weeks. You can find more information about this program by clicking here. Ruth said this program is highly sought after and recommended signing up for one as soon as possible.
Then I talked with the group about all these supports and some others that they can have in Queenstown, like the project we already have on this page here, about meals for when they have their babies. Read about this meal project by clicking here.
And finally we all sat by the table with the Brazilian midwife, Livia Johnston, for the main objective of this meeting: pregnant women talk to a midwife in their own language, our good Brazilian Portuguese. The conversation took place with the taste of wonderful snacks and melting moments cookies from Bia Lopes, and with a wonderful cake from the Sugary Patisserie‘s girls, Sheila and Natália, who also donated a box of sweets to be given to the midwife.
After Livia, Brazilian Byanca Prado, from the Southern Wellbeing Trust, spoke with those present about the workshop on well-being and mental health, in Portuguese, given by herself and about the workshop for new parents, given in English by Mary Mansell. She also handed out a free entry coupon to make use of the pool at the Events Centre, to each of the pregnant women. To attend a workshop, email workshops@southernwellbeingtrust.org.
At the end of the event, in addition to the baby boxes, the pregnant women also received a bag with gifts from the Lakes District Multicultural Council. Thank you very much Tam Schurmann, Hernan Sosa and Sunitha Karunakaran.
They also received a 10% discount coupon from Adriene Oliveira Massage, for pregnancy massage, relaxing massage or lymphatic drainage.
Thank you very much for the presence of all, and all the people who contributed in some way for this event to happen.
Luana Karina – luana@brasileirosemqueenstown.org
