MEET RACHEL STARRETT: THE BABY WHISPERER
Tresillian is a much loved helping hand for parents and carers and we are very fortunate to now have these early parenting services in our Midcoast region, including individualised support and group programs.
It was amidst our devastating 2019 bushfires, that the Tresillian service opened its doors in Taree at its Albert Street location opposite the police station.
And now in the global pandemic that is Covid19 it’s worth reflecting on the fact that this valued service started in Australia 102 years ago in the last major global pandemic – the 1918 Spanish Flu which caused a high death rate for mothers and their babies.
For a number of years Tresillian was only based in Sydney with the offer of residential support and day services for families, but over the years a couple of regional services were added at Albury-Wodonga and Lismore, and then two years ago there was funding provided for five more regional centres and the Manning was earmarked as one of those locations.
There’s some further good news on the horizon for families in the Midcoast needing to access longer stay residential services with the recent launch of a new five bed residential facility within the new Macksville Hospital.
It’s been a challenging first year for our local Manning service but Tresillian’s support for families in our region has been unwavering, working around the bushfires initially and then Covid19 challenges to connect with families via video link.
The Tresillian in Manning Family Care Centre located in Taree is headed up by Rachel Starrett, the Nurse Unit Manager who brings with her 40 years of nursing experience.
“We started offering a home visiting service in June of 2019 then we moved into our Albert Street location in October offering centre visits. We can also offer virtual consultations with clients. Previously appointments were by referral from health professionals but now families can self-refer for any of our services. ”
Rachel says that from her four decades of experience working in this area she believes two of the greatest challenges for parents, particularly new parents, are lack of confidence and information overload.
“I know when I raised my children I might have had a choice of two or three books, my mum on the other end of the phone and a few close friends and I didn’t have the whole world looking over my shoulder telling me what to do.”
Parenting Pressures: “There’s also the commercialisation of parenting – this Instagram perfect mummy world of parenting and it’s just not the reality of it and it’s not easy trying to get people to move away from this.”
Rachel believes one of the greatest supports for mums is other mums and forming those important social connections to help with anxiety. “That’s why it’s important to be part of playgroups and community events, meeting up with other mums and hearing that there’s another mum who’s also up at 2am every morning in tears because her baby hasn’t slept for hours.”
Rachel says that whilst Tresillian ‘don’t have a magic wand to wave’ they are able to work with parents to come up with solutions. “A lot of mums know what to do but don’t have the confidence to keep going. I often think that for parents these days it’s a case of information overload – there’s so much out there and so many people are willing to give their opinion and I think often as a new mum it just needs one person to tap you on the shoulder and say ‘oh have you tried this’ and your confidence goes down.”
Rachel says “parents face many challenges with their parenting confidence including lack of support, the break up of the family, domestic violence, insecure housing, moving around various locations which can then lead to social isolation and inter-generational family problems. Mental health around anxiety and depression is another big challenge for many parents and this can impact on confidence levels.”
A key to offering parents support at Tresillian is listening and asking not just what’s going on with the baby but also for the family so we can support them in their parenting…”we work in partnership with parents and whilst we have expertise we are not the experts on the baby. We have knowledge and education but mums are the real experts on their baby. We work with parents for them to arrive at solutions and we do this by being goal focused, looking at small goals with realistic expectations and understanding around their child’s growth and development – both physical and emotional and also looking at the maternal infant relationship.”
Rachel has now notched up 40 years of nursing experience after commencing her nursing career in the UK. “I’ve always worked in paediatrics and I trained in what would be regarded as an old fashioned formal hospital in London so I loved working in the kids ward where it was a little more relaxed working with families.”
When Rachel moved to Australia at the age of 25 she worked in the area of paediatric oncology at hospitals in Sydney before moving to the Manning 15 years ago where she worked at Manning Base in the general kids ward as well as studying towards a Certificate in Family Nursing to formalise her qualifications. Before taking on her role at Tresillian Rachel worked as a Child and Family Health Nurse at Gloucester for 12 years.
So having nursed in both an acute area of children’s health and early intervention, Rachel sees both areas as equally important. “Getting the health basics right early in life, getting the child-parent relationships right we know through evidence-based practice how much that can impact families positively. My role really is to walk alongside parents and provide them with the necessary supports.”
Rachel’s strongest message to parents who may be currently struggling with a newborn….”please pick up the phone and don’t ever feel that you are lacking because you need support. I hate the terms of coping or not coping because that’s stigmatising and it has negative connotations around something you’re doing wrong and we are very much strength-based in our focus and teaching parents that you’re not alone and it’s ok to ask for help.”
Thank you Rachel and Tresillian for all you do to support families with early parenting support in our community.Â
TRESILLIAN CONTACTS:
Tresillian in Manning Family Care Centre –Â 02 6515 1952.
The Tresillian Parent Helpline phone number is also available 7 days per week – 1300 272 736 (7 days, 7am to 11pm. All messages will be returned in 48 hours).
Tresillian Website for 24/7 information.
Photo: Jasmine Williams, Administration Officer (pictured left) and Rachel Starrett, Nurse Unit Manager with Tresillian in the Manning who has 40 years experience in nursing.