Parenting scheme gives Donni baby skills

Donni Blythe comes across as a natural mother. She coos to her baby daughter, kisses her rosy cheeks and gently adjusts her tiny pink dress.
But the 30-year-old is the first to admit that becoming a first-time mum isn't as easy as it looks.
Ms Blythe, of Matua, has been coming to Greenpark Playcentre since the week before her daughter, Evelyn, was born five months ago.
She aspired to be the best mother she could be, and playcentre was there to help.
The New Zealand Playcentre Federation is 60 this year and a unique programme developed and piloted by the Hutt Playcentre Association is set to become a saviour for first-time parents, nationwide.
SPACE _ or Support Parents Alongside Children's Education _ has been running in Tauranga for six-months, and is an opportunity for parents to meet and get to know one another, to learn about child development, and how to best interact and play with their growing babies.
A different topic is covered every week, encompassing everything from infant CPR, to post natal depression, attachment and bonding, musical stimulation and vaccination, the father's role, sleeping, food and nutrition, swimming, and baby massage.
Parents are presented with all the latest research and information to make informed choices about their child's early upbringing.
For first-time mums like Ms Blythe, it's been fantastic.
"You think you're the only one that's got that problem. The interaction with the other mothers and babies is great ... It's good to be able bounce ideas/problems off one another."
Another young mum, Kyra Sharplin, 35, who brings her 6-month-old daughter, Maia, to the Greenpark sessions, said there were big changes with having a baby.
This was particularly the case if you were one of the first in your group of girlfriends to have a child.
Playcentre provided a good way to meet new people, she said. Truly Godfrey, SPACE session facilitator, said the programme also aimed to introduce mothers and children to playcentre earlier.
"The first time a child is likely to come is when they are two or three. This [programme] means half will go into early childhood education earlier.
"It provides a support group at a very challenging time in their lives. Babies don't come with manuals," she said.
"It's only just scratching the surface of community need ... One lady who had post-natal depression came here, and with our environment ... where babies were crying and [us] not judging them ... it really helped," she said.
Plunket karitane nurse Kerry Jenkins, described the programme as "brilliant".
Unlike short-term new parent programmes, it was set up to last from pregnancy to 12-months, and runs once a week for two-and-a-half hours.