For support maternity and child health professionals. Recent policy, public health and community interest in a healthy start to life means there is increasing momentum towards including healthy lifestyle advice for pregnancy and families in all health professionals’ roles. Gravida is working on a new initiative, funded by the Ministry of Health, to offer two new professional development programmes for maternity and child health professionals in New Zealand in 2015 that offer support and knowledge in this area. Their focus is on strengthening awareness amongst these workforces of the important influence of nutrition and physical activity on a mother’s health and her infant’s development prior, during and after pregnancy – in particular in terms of affecting their risk of later-in-life non-communicable diseases (NCDs) like heart disease, diabetes, obesity, asthma and some cancers. The first programme, the Healthy Start Education Programme, translates and explores the clinical and scientific evidence about why this period matters so much to life-long health. The second, Healthy Conversation Skills (HCS) training, is a training programme in skills that support behaviour change - showing how to successfully support women and families to make healthy choices. gravida.org.nz/
Posted on: Mon, 12 Jan 2015 21:17:47 +0000