long-awaited<\/a> guidelines to help grieving families cope with the loss of a baby during pregnancy or in the first year after birth.<\/p>\nThe National Bereavement Care Pathway for Perinatal Loss was released on Thursday.<\/p>\n
It outlined the nine standards that will guide the future approach to bereavement care across Aotearoa.<\/p>\n
Every year in New Zealand about 700 to 900 families experience perinatal loss.<\/p>\n
An additional 13,000 to 15,000 families are affected by miscarriage before 20 weeks.<\/p>\n
“Tuituia te Kahu sets a clear national direction for compassionate, culturally safe and consistent bereavement care,” Health New Zealand wrote.<\/p>\n
“It will be used to guide the planning and commissioning of services across primary, community, hospital and specialist settings.”<\/p>\n
Technical Advisory Group co-chair Vicki Culling told RNZ that New Zealand had a world-renowned maternity service, but nothing woven in for the death of a baby, and support of a wh\u0101nau.<\/p>\n
“We hope this report is a start to addressing that,” she said.<\/p>\n
![\"National](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/4JQNUCL_1775326834610_2c25c331_bf91_4936_983e_c5853b4976a2_1_png.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
\nThe National Bereavement Care Pathway for Perinatal Loss.
\nPhoto: Supplied\n<\/p>\n
The other Technical Advisory Group co-chair, Kendall Stevenson, said the pathway was designed upon a concept of wh\u0101riki (woven mat), with each strand being a standard interwoven with one another to enable strength, interconnectedness, adaptability, and balance.<\/p>\n
Stevenson said the ingoa, Tuituia Te Kahu, emerged within a dream – recognised as a tohu pai.<\/p>\n
Tuituia is derived from tuia or tuitui – to sew, to bind, to thread (repeatedly).<\/p>\n
While kahu is used as a nod to Kahu Taurima – Health New Zealand’s programme to support wh\u0101nau from pregnancy through early childhood. “Kahu is also a term used for a p\u0113pi who dies,” Stevenson said.<\/p>\n
![\"Senior](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/4JZHW7V_Dr_Kendall_Stevenson_jpeg.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
\nKendall Stevenson
\nPhoto: Supplied\/Te T\u0101tai Hauora o Hine\n<\/p>\n
Stevenson believed the current health system had failed for a long time because something like Tuituia Te Kahu had not existed.<\/p>\n
She hoped Tuituia Te Kahu would be implemented in full.<\/p>\n
Stevenson said Culling and herself had made it clear to Health New Zealand that the name itself was significant.<\/p>\n
“If we feel like that name is not being well-respected, we will be holding people to account for that,” she said.<\/p>\n
After the release of Tuituia Te Kahu, Stevenson said she would maintain her call to action.<\/p>\n
“That’s the very least that wh\u0101nau deserve”.<\/p>\n
![\"No](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/4MQ3JXJ_copyright_image_236387.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
\nVicki Culling
\nPhoto: RNZ\/Samuel Rillstone\n<\/p>\n
Culling said there was more work to be done.<\/p>\n
“What does it mean for this to be woven into our maternity system? What will it look like? How will it impact bereaved wh\u0101nau? What will it mean for them?<\/p>\n
“We know what a difference it will make. We absolutely know. And so we want to see that difference still happen.<\/p>\n
“We don’t want it to be piecemeal. We really want this to be carried in its fullness and to rightly have that ingoa – that name.”<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Sands New Zealand welcomed Tuituia Te Kahu.<\/p>\n
The non-profit, volunteer organisation said a clearer, more compassionate, and better-supported pathway was needed.<\/p>\n
“Every recommendation reflects what so many parents have told us for years: that their grief deserves recognition, their voices deserve to be heard, and their care should never depend on where they live.”<\/p>\n
Sign up for Ng\u0101 Pitopito K\u014drero<\/a>, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Photo: 123RF Health New Zealand has released long-awaited guidelines to help grieving families cope with the loss of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":364298,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[48,47,111,43,139,69,49,46,44,45],"class_list":{"0":"post-364297","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-zealand","8":"tag-audio","9":"tag-current-affairs","10":"tag-new-zealand","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-newzealand","13":"tag-nz","14":"tag-podcasts","15":"tag-public-radio","16":"tag-radio-new-zealand","17":"tag-rnz"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/364297","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=364297"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/364297\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/364298"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=364297"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=364297"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=364297"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Photo](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/4MBMXUT_copyright_image_261686.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n