Our aim
Koi Tū’s Knowledge Hub for Maternal and Child Health was established in 2021. We aim to help policy makers, healthcare practitioners, service providers and other decision makers reach evidence-informed decisions based on the latest available knowledge across all disciplines relevant to maternal, infant and child health.
What we do
We rigorously assess academic and other literature on a specific topic by collating, interrogating and evaluating global and local information across multiple disciplines.
We then produce accessible evidence briefs that give an overview of the issue, outline what we currently know and what we still need to find out, and explain how the knowledge relates to an Aotearoa New Zealand context. We discuss some of the research implications for New Zealand whānau (families), especially mothers/birthing parents, babies and tamariki (children).
We communicate our findings with stakeholders across government and the public service sector, healthcare practitioners, service providers, academics, and the wider public.
Our work is peer-reviewed by national and international experts with specialist knowledge of the topic.
Our work
- Intergenerational disadvantage: Why maternal mental health matters – 18 May 2021
- Screen time: The effects on children’s emotional, social, and cognitive development – 4 September 2021
- Executive functions: A crucial but overlooked factor for lifelong wellbeing – 8 November 2021
- Bonding: A brilliant brain builder. The importance of supporting parents to bond with their child from the earliest years – 31 May 2022
- Beyond genes: How fathers play a biological role in the health of future generations – 19 July 2022
- Perinatal mental distress: An under-recognised concern – 15 September 2022
- Compilation of Knowledge Hub evidence briefs 2021-2022 – October 2022
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Other work:
- Improving mask use to reduce Covid-19 transmission – 17 September 2021
Why we do what we do
All New Zealand tamariki should have the opportunity to progress through life unencumbered by preventable disadvantages arising early in life.
As the 2020 WHO-UNICEF-Lancet Commission report notes, “early investments in children’s health, education, and development have benefits that compound throughout the child’s lifetime, for their future children, and society as a whole.”
Therefore, evidence-based prevention and intervention policies are needed to best serve children and wider society. By helping to make sense of the vast amounts of knowledge on maternal and child health, we aim to facilitate its application to policy and practice in a more rapid and meaningful way. More broadly, we wish to help ensure an ongoing whole-of-government, whole-of-society approach to improve the long-term wellbeing of New Zealand’s tamariki.
Who we are
The Knowledge Hub is led by Dr Felicia Low with assistance from Chloe Wilkinson and oversight by Sir Peter Gluckman. Occasionally, evidence briefs are co-authored with Koi Tū Associates with relevant expertise.
We welcome you to contact us to discuss collaborative possibilities, be added to our stakeholder database and mailing list, or for any other queries.
Our work is generously supported by the Wright Family Foundation.