There’s always something happening in the world of pregnancy, birth, and parenting in Aotearoa. Here’s what’s been on our radar this week, from a school swapping screens for pens to some fascinating new science on the maternal brain.
A Taranaki school swapped iPads for pen and paper — and the results are getting attention
Ōmata School in New Plymouth was once an early adopter of tablets in the classroom. This year, the school packed the iPads away for its youngest students, years one to four, and returned to handwriting instead. What started as a one-term trial has now been extended to the end of the year. The principal says the decision came after reading research on how screens affect young, developing brains, and points out that handwriting engages far more of the brain than typing does, since forming each letter requires thinking about shape and movement in a way that tapping a screen doesn’t. Worth a read if screen time in early learning is something you’ve been thinking about.
New science on how the brain changes for motherhood
Some of the deepest instincts of motherhood, checking on a sleeping baby, staying close, responding to crying, happen without conscious thought. New research is helping explain why. Scientists have identified a specific brain pathway that appears to drive a mother’s urge to bond with her newborn. What we find especially valuable about this research is its aim: understanding that difficulties with bonding may reflect brain pathways still adapting, rather than any kind of personal failing. The Ministry of Health estimates that 12 to 18 percent of women in Aotearoa experience depression, anxiety, or other mental health conditions during pregnancy or after birth, so research like this matters for reducing stigma and improving support.
Could everyday plastics be affecting fertility?
RNZ recently sat down with Dr Shanna Swan, an environmental and reproductive epidemiologist who has spent decades researching how chemicals in plastics might affect human hormones and fertility. It’s a genuinely interesting listen, though worth noting this is an active and sometimes contested area of science. Some researchers have pushed back on how her findings have been framed, and sperm count alone is considered an imperfect measure of fertility. If preconception health is on your mind, this is a thoughtful listen, just one worth taking in alongside the wider scientific conversation rather than as settled fact.
Read the full interview on RNZ
Raising kids with a healthy relationship with food and their bodies
For whānau with school-aged tamariki, this is a topic worth sitting with. 1News spoke with Claire Turnbull, a registered NZ nutritionist who has been open about her own past struggles with food and body image, about how parents can help their children build a healthy, non-anxious relationship with eating and their bodies. It’s a gentle, thoughtful read rather than a list of rules, and a good reminder that the way we talk about food and bodies at home shapes how our tamariki feel about both.
If any of these topics are landing close to home right now, you’ll find family and wellbeing support providers across Aotearoa on Hey Māmā.
This bulletin is a roundup of external news stories. Hey Māmā links to original sources and does not reproduce or represent the views of those publications.