Special care nurses celebrated at Kareena
Private Hospital
The Ramsay Way 2019 | 01 15
HOSPITAL NEWS
New and expectant mothers at Pindara
Private Hospital now have access to pre
and post-natal check-ups with midwives,
who will provide support during and after
their pregnancies.
A group of midwives have been specially trained to work
alongside obstetricians to deliver the ‘Know My Midwife’
program to maternity patients at the hospital.
Assistant Director of Clinical Services Denise Hartley said:
“While the care and service we provide has always been
well received we wanted to do even more for our Pindara
mothers, specifically in regard to pre and post-natal support,
so this a great way to achieve this.”
Patients who choose to deliver at Pindara Private Hospital
will have access to up to four check-ups prior to their
deliveries with a designated midwife.
This service also includes a comprehensive appointment
at 20 weeks.
“It’s an hour and half appointment and involves
comprehensive obstetric, family, and social screening and
assessment to ensure appropriate intervention, support,
and referrals can occur,” Mrs Hartley said.
After the birth, mothers are provided with a weekly
appointment with their midwife for up to six weeks, with
the aim of providing support and identifying any health or
social issues.
“There is something about midwives; women open up to
us and this helps to make this ‘Know My Midwife’ service
really valuable for these mothers and their families,”
Mrs Hartley said.
So far there have been more than 300 appointments since
the program started at Pindara Private in November 2018.
The clinic is operating five days per week – from Monday
to Friday.
“We thought it would be popular, but we didn’t know exactly
how much. Women are loving the service and the midwives
are finding it really rewarding,” Mrs Hartley said.
Each year around 1,000 babies are born at Pindara Private
Hospital. Expectant mothers can be referred to the program
by an obstetrician or by contacting the Pindara Maternity
Unit directly.
WA to adapt Hong Kong nature connectedness study
International guest speaker Dr Tanya Sobko has visited Joondalup Health Campus (JHC), sharing her research about the importance
of connectedness with nature for pre-schoolers – something the ORIGINS Project Team hopes to adapt in Western Australia in future.
Dr Sobko works at the University of Hong Kong and has
published some promising research that provides hard
evidence of the link between mental health and time spent
in nature.
Introducing Tanya was JHC Head of Paediatrics Professor
Desiree Silva, Co-Director of the ORIGINS Project which
is a collaboration between the Telethon Kids Institute and
Joondalup Health Campus.
The ORIGINs Project is the largest study of its kind in
Australia, following 10,000 families over the next decade
to improve child and adult physical and mental health.
Professor Silva said research looking at nature
connectedness in babies and preschool children is very
much needed in Australia.
“Some three quarters of kids these days can’t climb a tree,”
Professor Silva said. “We know that kids don’t go outside
– but we really need to measure this and the impact it is
having. Tanya has been such a strong advocate for this,
focused on targeting early obesity.”
Dr Sobko’s presentation, “Promoting healthy lifestyle in
pre-schoolers using a nature-based intervention program,”
defined healthy lifestyle as including proper sleeping,
personal hygiene, absence of bad habits or addictions,
health education, a safe environment, physical fitness,
social support, emotional wellbeing and proper diet.
Tanya shared that in China today, waistlines are expanding
twice as fast as the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and that
diabetes rates are four times higher than in the USA.
“Previously we have not thought it possible to measure
connectedness in nature in pre-school children, mostly
due to the fact they are too young to answer for
themselves,” she said.
“So we developed a 16-item
parent questionnaire based
on four areas that reflect the
child-nature relationship:
enjoyment of nature, empathy
for nature, responsibility
towards nature, and awareness of nature.”
Nearly 500 families with children aged between two and
five participated in the study, which found that children with
close connections to nature experience less distress, less
hyperactivity, few behavioural and emotional difficulties and
improved pro-social behaviour.
The study is part of Dr Sobko's research-based programme
Play&Grow, which is the first in Hong Kong to promote
healthy eating and active playtime with preschool children
by connecting them to nature. Launched 2016, it has so far
included almost 1000 families from all over Hong Kong.
Midwives on hand
for mothers at Pindara
Private Hospital
Save one life – you’re a hero. Save a hundred – you’re a nurse. Nurse and nursing mum Katie Bremner
is celebrating the unsung heroes in Kareena Private Hospital’s special care nursery this International
Nurses’ Day.
Like most new mums, Katie was delighted when she fell
pregnant, and still recalls getting to know her unborn twins
Oliver and Harrison in the womb.
“I felt their little kicks. I talked to them. I couldn’t wait to
meet them,” Katie said.
After noticing a sudden loss of movement at 29 weeks,
Katie and husband Andy drove to the Royal Hospital for
Women in Sydney where scans showed a concealed
placental abruption (premature separation of the placenta
from the uterus).
Despite being rushed to theatre for an emergency
caesarean, the couple lost their identical twin boys on the
same day.
“I think the hardest thing was watching everyone else leave
with their new little babies, and we walked out empty-handed,”
Katie said.
“We got to hold our babies and say goodbye and we have a
special box at home with their little footprints, but I can only
just talk about it now.”
The couple fell pregnant again with Sophie 10 months later.
With concerns regarding the scarring from the previous
emergency procedure, Katie’s obstetrician scheduled a
c-section at 36 weeks at Kareena Private Hospital.
“The lead-up to going to hospital was very stressful and I
constantly worried about something going wrong,” Katie said.
“When Sophie was safely delivered, I thought the stress
would ease off, but it didn’t because having a premmie
child that needs special care comes with its own set
of challenges!”
“I will be eternally grateful for the special care nurses at
Kareena. They took on the challenge with me, and were
there 24/7 every step of the way.”
“For me the experience of being in special care was new,
but for them it’s an everyday job, and they treated every
little baby like they were the most special person on earth.
They didn’t just look after Sophie; they looked after me and
my husband too.”
“By the time Emily came along in 2019, also three and a half
weeks premmie, I was comfortable putting her in the expert
hands of the staff in the special care nursery!”
“As a registered nurse myself, working in diabetes, I know
the value of a health care support team. I also knew 100%
that when I left hospital to go home to sleep that both Emily
and Sophie were in the best of hands.
“This International Nurses Day I salute Kareena’s nurses
and all nurses who are performing ‘little miracles’ in special
care nurseries every day. And quite a lot of ‘big’ ones too in
operating theatres, specialist clinics, palliative care and in
rehab centres around the country.”