Lack of certification required for healthy homes
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RNZ News
an hour ago
- RNZ News
Hundreds of babies to benefit from Northland's first milk bank
The bank's first donor, Whangārei mum Ashlee Robinson, with Whangārei Rotary Club South past president Jenni Moore, who led the fundraising campaign for the almost $33,000 pasteuriser. Photo: RNZ / Peter de Graaf Northland's first human milk bank is expected to benefit hundreds of premature and unwell babies every year. Whangārei mum Ashlee Robinson was the first person to donate milk when the new service opened at the city's Te Kotuku maternity unit on Friday afternoon. She said her own baby spent a month in the hospital's neo-natal unit, so she knew how much the milk bank was needed. "I saw my milk sitting there in excess, and all these other babies that could be benefiting from it but at the time couldn't - and now they can," she said. "It makes me quite emotional because I would have accepted milk when my baby was in there and needed it... those babies are quite vulnerable, and I'd do anything to help them." The bank's first donor, Whangārei mum Ashlee Robinson, watches as her milk is stored in the milk bank freezer until needed. Photo: RNZ / Peter de Graaf Northland director of midwifery Sue Bree likened breast milk to "liquid gold". "It is love turned into food. Of course, there are many, many nutritional benefits as well. Premature babies have specific needs in terms of immunity and the antibodies that are in breast milk," she said. Bree said women who wished to donate milk would be able to drop it off at a collection point in central Whangārei. It would then be pasteurised and frozen until needed. Bree compared the milk bank project to a pregnancy, albeit one with a more than two-year gestation period. It had been made possible by "incredible generosity" from the community, which had raised the almost $33,000 needed to buy the pasteuriser. "It's a pragmatic manifestation of the saying, 'It takes a village to raise a child'," Bree said. A premature baby in Whangārei Hospital's Te Kotuku neonatal unit. Photo: RNZ / Peter de Graaf Bree said Northland had high rates of breastfeeding but donated milk was needed for sick and pre-term babies. "Sometimes they don't have access to breast milk, either because it's early days and the mother is unable to produce it, or there are other, long-term issues. So, we recognised this was going to be a really beneficial thing for our sick and vulnerable pēpi (babies)." Small, premature babies would be prioritised, but donated milk could also be given to babies in the maternity ward with low blood sugar levels. In the past, premature babies had mainly been given formula, made from cow's milk, which was essential but not ideal. She expected hundreds of babies a year would benefit. Midwife Louise Rowden said a mother's breast milk was the perfect food. "But if the mother can't get her own breast milk, then the next best thing is another mother's breast milk," she said. Lactation consultant Janine Parsons said breast milk also brought long-term health benefits, including reduced rates of diabetes, cardio-vascular problems, obesity and allergies in later life. She said pasteurisation eliminated bacteria and viruses but preserved "the vast majority" of antibodies and vitamins. Donors would also complete a health questionnaire and a blood test, to check for diseases that could be transmitted through breast milk. The milk would be tested after pasteurisation to ensure it was safe. Public fundraising for the pasteuriser was led by Whangārei Rotary Club South, with contributions from Hāpai Te Hauora, Whangārei Lions, Whangārei City Rotary, Northland Community Foundation. Much of the money came from an auction of artworks bequeathed by the late Kerikeri artist Valerie Hunton, who had a lifelong commitment to women's health across the Pacific. Whangārei mum Ashlee Robinson, the first donor, cuts the ribbon to open Northland's first human milk bank. Photo: RNZ / Peter de Graaf Whangārei's new milk bank was used within an hour of opening for a pre-term baby who had spent a week in the neonatal unit. Mum Emma, from Whangārei, said she wanted to give her baby breast milk from the beginning, but had to use formula instead. She said it was "really exciting" to be the first person in Northland to use the service. "It's so good to have this option now. And baby's great. We've just got the go-ahead to go home," she said. He Piropiro Waiū Human Milk Bank is the fifth public milk bank in the motu, after Christchurch, Wellington, Nelson and Blenheim. There are also private milk banks in Christchurch and Palmerston North. Health New Zealand is working on a system to transport donated breast milk to other parts of Northland.
RNZ News
3 hours ago
- RNZ News
Former Black Fern Cheryl Waaka on facing cancer
sport health 30 minutes ago This week a group of healthworkers - including specialists, nurses and paramedics signed an open letter to MPs asking them to waive private healthcare during their time in office. It's an idea, that Mihingarangi Forbes put to former Black Fern Cheryl Waaka - who helped bring home two world cups. At just 55, Cheryl is facing a stage four bowel cancer diagnosis. She's too young to have been screened, and the drug she needs is not funded - she's got to find thirty thousand dollars by August.
RNZ News
6 hours ago
- RNZ News
Not so awful offal
Hannah Miller Childs, funder of The Lady Butcher Photo: Davina Zimmer One of Hannah Miller Childs' go-to bar snacks is chicken hearts. "A bit of mustard, you can eat it with a toothpick," she says. You could also chop it up, add it into mince and make it a full nutritious meal. Adding offal to mince in government school lunches last week hit the headlines because parents hadn't been warned it was coming. But what's the big deal? Offal is back on the menu not just at school, but in high-end restaurants and one specific pub just off Auckland's Dominion Road. Originally from America, Miller Childs moved to New Zealand a little over a decade ago to pursue a career in butchery. She founded a boutique business, the Lady Butcher, specialising in traditionally crafted, locally sourced meats. She follows the nose to tail philosophy, which as the name suggests, means using the entire animal from nose to tail, including all the crunchy, wobbly, icky bits widely known here as offal. "Stomach, heart, liver... bones can be part of that as well, usually the head in its entirety is referred to as offal, although in more recent years cheeks have become popular so now what we'll do is we'll take the cheeks off, and the rest of the head would become offal," Miller Childs says. While some may remember growing up eating parts like kidney or liver, offal hasn't necessarily been a popular protein choice. Miller Childs thinks offal is having a comeback and is in full support of it. "There's a reason why in nature, when a lion takes down a gazelle, they eat the guts first. That's where the nutrition is," she says. There are different kind of offal, red and green. The former refers to organs like the heart, liver and kidneys and the latter encapsulates things like the intestines, stomach and bladder. Miller Childs says red offal is especially good for you. "Heart particularly, really high in protein, but also vitamins... a lot of women don't get enough iron, eat some heart, and a small amount goes a long way," she says. It's also significantly cheaper than the standard slab of steak or chicken breast. So while you might not want to commit to a whole ox heart, swapping out your chicken breast or steak with something like chicken hearts could significantly cut down your grocery bill. "You're looking at ... a couple bucks, whereas for the same weight-wise for a steak you'd be paying upwards of $20," Miller Childs says. But Miller Childs acknowledges there's an ick factor to eating offal, in part because we've become disconnected from where our food comes from. "The thing with offal is, it looks like what it is, a heart looks like a heart ... so there's that confrontational aspect," she says. Miller Childs thinks as a society we've removed ourselves from that confrontation but says actually knowing what you're eating and where it's coming from is incredibly important. "While I'm pro eating offal, I do want to know what's in my food and I think that we should all have a healthy interest in that," she says. Consuming offal doesn't just mean eating it yourself, it could also mean feeding it to your pets. The main thing is avoiding as much waste as possible. "This animal took years to raise, someone spent their life doing that ... there's a lot that's gone into it and it's very easy, in today's life, to just go, 'buy a packet of mince and off you go', without thinking about it. "If it doesn't get eaten, or if you can't be bothered with taking leftovers for lunch it ends up in the bin and it's a waste of that whole process." Check out how to listen to and follow The Detail here . You can also stay up-to-date by liking us on Facebook or following us on Twitter .
