Merekingi Harvey-Brewster | 22 August, 2024
Tupu Matomato is a service that wraps around hapū māmā and their whānau for up to three years, nurturing them to flourish and grow. The programme was born out of a desire to revitalise traditional birthing practices and explore the stages of labour from a Māori lens.
The programme currently has 10 wāhine onboard, who our two service deliverers Janey-Rose Kahu, and Tysharna Raihania work alongside to provide meaningful and intensive care. Janey says that the support provided looks different for every whānau, and all depends on where they’re at with their journey.
Their goal is to gently introduce and normalise traditional birthing practices such as karakia, the use of taonga pūoro, ipu whenua, and more.
“We don’t want to overwhelm them, instead we want to weave in knowledge over time so that it doesn’t feel super foreign to them.”
Traditional birth attendants are not a substitute for a midwife says Janey, but instead they are there to support the space while wāhine embrace their natural birthing abilities.
“Some wāhine birth with no knowledge of our practices or how capable we are to have a birth without intervention. Our medical professionals provide their clinical knowledge, and we have the opportunity to support the emotional and spiritual side of birthing.”
A māmā on the programme has recently given birth to a beautiful baby boy, which Janey felt privileged to be able to attend.
“Being there for her birth was amazing and it was such a beautiful night. Seeing māmā realise and step into that strength she’s always had was such an honour to witness”
The support from Tupu Matomato has meant that the new māmā can focus on the relationship building with her baby instead of stressing about basic necessities.
Her focus right now is spending quality time with her pēpi and making the most of these early days.
“I owe it to my pēpi for choosing me to be his māma! His arrival into te ao was like no other & was perfect in every way. He was ready and so was I, an experience only one could dream of. My hopes for me and my pēpi is to just take each day as it comes and learn with each other along the way. We are both new to this journey but I’m sure that just like everything else we will get through it and māmā will always figure it out.”
