Help hard to find for mum

Krystal Keil is having trouble finding a group to help with advice on raising her daughter Navi. Photo / Joel Ford

New mother Krystal Keil is having a hard time trying to find a parenting group to accommodate her.

The 26-year-old recently moved to Tauranga and had her baby girl Navi in September.

Aside from her partner, Miss Keil's family all live out of the area so she wanted to join a parent support group to help her through the challenges of being a first-time mum.

Miss Keil tried joining two parenting groups she knew of, Parents As First Teachers and SPACE, and said she was told both had a waiting list. She did not know of any other groups.

"It's really difficult to find support in Tauranga. I've only just started up with Tamariki Ora [Well Child], I haven't really had the chance to talk with them yet about what sort of services they offer," she said.

"There are some parenting groups out there but that information is really hard to access.

"A lot of the parenting groups aren't really structured, it's just go and have a coffee. There's no qualified learning and development advisor attending the session."

Miss Keil wanted to join a group with a professional advisor that was attended by other mothers so she could meet new people.

"Navi is only one-month-old and the programmes start at six weeks. I thought I would be able to slide into a session where all the kids are about 6-weeks-old. I just didn't think when I was pregnant that it would be a pre-booking."

SPACE co-ordinator Ruth McDermott said the organisation's parenting programmes always had a waiting list. "It's quite frustrating that we can't place everyone.

"There's waiting lists for different programmes, we're looking to start another one at Mount Maunganui Playcentre to accommodate 11 of parents with babies born between July and September."

Tauranga Plunket community services leader Kath Lawrence said Plunket had a range of parent education programmes for different ages lasting six weeks. The programmes started from when the baby was 6-weeks-old.

Mrs Lawrence said Plunket's programmes always had spaces, but said an annual survey carried out by Plunket revealed Bay mums were in need of access to more services.

In response to this, Plunket released the Thriving in the Bay booklet with information about all of the region's parenting services.

A Parents As First Teachers member said she was unable to talk to media, but said there were empty spaces at the group in Tauranga. She said Miss Keil had been put on an inquiry list.

The Bay of Plenty Times also requested comment from the Parents Centre but got no response.