Good parenting starts before birth
Good parenting starts early. Stormie Diamond at Mookai Rosie, QLD. Photo: Kerry Trapnell.
Many women make the long trek from Cape York Peninsula to Cairns to give birth.
The Mookai Rosie Bi-Bayan accommodation and care centre in Cairns is a safe haven for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander mothers and children from remote Cape York.
The mothers usually arrive around six weeks before their baby is due and spend their days quietly preparing for the birth, learning everything a new mother needs to know, from breastfeeding to budgeting.
Mookai Rosie Bi-Bayan means “Aunty Rosie’s Place”. Thirty years ago Cairns local Aunty Rose Richards started taking Indigenous women and children into her own home when they needed to stay in Cairns to receive medical care.
“Aunty Rose and our other founders fought to get funding for a facility to cater to the needs of our Indigenous women and children,” says CEO Lillian Simpson.
“Our centre is not just about staying healthy through nutrition and exercise while you are pregnant. It’s also about learning to care for your baby – bathing, feeding, safe sleeping habits and providing a safe environment.”
To help parents cope with their new responsibilities, Mookai Rosie provides training in health awareness and household budgeting. It gives mothers a baby basket with many items they will need in the first months of parenthood, and the mothers “earn” their baskets by attending important classes.
Health workers and educators at Mookai Rosie explain to expecting mothers the harm drinking alcohol, smoking and other drugs can do to their babies.
They are also taught about nutrition, and that breastfeeding is cheaper and healthier for most babies than bottle feeding. And they learn about the benefits of immunisation and baby health checks.
Mookai Rosie’s care means happier, healthier, more confident mothers are returning to their homes.
“In our culture aunties, cousins and sisters help one another to rear our children, so what the mothers learn here they pass on to other mothers in the communities,” says Simpson.
Find out more
The Australian Government has committed to halving the gap in mortality rates for Indigenous children under five by 2018.
Mookai Rosie
is supported by Aboriginal Hostels Limited and the Australian Government’s New Directions program, which helps Indigenous families access support before and after their babies’ births, providing information on baby care and practical advice and assistance with parenting.
Mookai Rosie’s 24-bed ante-natal and post-natal facility has received funding from the Indigenous Mothers Accommodation Fund, which provides accommodation and support for mothers from remote areas when they travel to regional centres.
The Raising Children Network has useful information for parents and carers of children up to 15 years of age.
The Australian Government also assists new Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander parents through a wide range of allowances and programs, including:
- Paid Parental Leave, the Child Care Rebate and the Child Care Benefit, to help with the costs of raising children.
- Strong Fathers, Strong Families, which is a parenting initiative for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander men to strengthen their knowledge, skills and confidence in their critical roles as fathers, grandfathers, relatives and role models.
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