Derby MCH Workshop draws a crowd

The annual two-day inter-agency Maternal and Child Health (MCH) workshop was this year held in Derby.  Nearly 70 participants from across the Kimberley’s attended, including midwives, child health nurses, allied health, aboriginal health workers, kindilink facilitators, GP’s and paediatricians.  This year’s workshop started at Mowanjum Aboriginal community on day one, with a demonstration of a smoking ceremony, along with discussion of traditional bush medicine.  Participants then moved into town for updates on MCH in the region.  The second day theme was ‘the First 1000 days’, a notion that our nutrition and early years environment, from conception to our second birthday, can have a significant impact on our physical and mental health well into the future.  A range of speakers from across the Kimberley and interstate (including both Boab Health paediatric nutritionists Emma Robinson and Tracy Raymond) covered early years stress, nutrition, breastfeeding and current research, before participants were asked to create a ‘spiderweb’ depiction of the complex inter-relatedness of The First 1000 days and our health.  Workshop participants then were tasked with coming up with their own radio adverts to translate the complex ideas they’d been hearing, into simple messages for our Kimberley communities.  Finally, Boab Health’s psychologist Allysa Wills presented on self-care and burnout, an extremely valuable final message to our hardworking MCH team in the Kimberley.  Overall, the workshop was deemed a huge success, with the MCH team motivated to spread the word about the importance of a healthy pregnancy and early years of life, so that the future generations of our communities can be as healthy as possible.  For more information about the workshop or our Paediatric Nutrition programs please contact Emma Robinson on 9192 7888 or email Emma here.