Big relief for families
New centre offers post-natal support
THERE is no official manual for how to manage a baby that refuses to sleep, but a new service in the Far North offers the next best thing.
Cairns Private Hospital has opened the region’s first Early Parenting Centre, providing specialist support and care to families experiencing postnatal difficulties in the weeks and months following the arrival of a new baby until two years of age.
The centre, which has 12 staff, allows parents to stay up to five days while they receive expert advice for infants experiencing feeding difficulties, sleeping problems, reflux and colic, irritability, maternal exhaustion and adjusting to parenthood.
Cairns mum Laura Snyder was the first client at the centre with her 10-week-old son Wyatt this week, needing extra support to help her newborn sleep.
“He was crying quite a bit during the day,” she said.
“I wouldn’t say I was at my last straw, but I wasn’t coping extremely well.
“I don’t have my mum here in Cairns, so there were things about his nap-eat-play routine — I felt like I totally missed that memo.
“He just wasn’t sleeping during the day and now he’s just such a happier baby now that he’s sleeping.”
The hospital’s associate nurse unit manager, Terri Curcio, believed there was plenty of demand across the region for the new service.
“I’ve worked across drop-in centres as a midwife in the Far North, where we see mothers and babies coming in, after they’ve had their baby,” she said.
“Many, many times I’ve thought ‘if only we had something like this’, because they come in and they need support.
“They need to be able to go somewhere and have a residential stay where we can provide support 24 hours a day.”
Parents can receive a referral to the centre from GPs.