Pride of NZ Awards: Welcoming babies with love

Loved 4 Life founder Marcia Guest-McGrath with one of the organisation's signature handcrafted bassinet quilts. Photo / Cloe Willetts

Loved 4 Life helps parents of newborns get support they need to keep their child safe.

Community Spirit category
When Marcia Guest-McGrath arrived from South Africa in 1978, she did not know that the hardships associated with leaving an extended family behind would result in the founding of a social scheme 36 years later.

With memories of feeling isolated in a new community a "huge driver" for her, as she shifted from teaching work to a later career in corporate management, Mrs Guest-McGrath started the not-for-profit community organisation Loved 4 Life in 2008.

Having connected with more than 1300 New Zealand families since its conception, what began as a small Te Horo-based team is now a collection of 16 Loved 4 Life chapters throughout the country.

The organisation, which provides handcrafted bassinet quilts to families of newborns, aims to support parents, particularly young and first-time families, to ensure every child will be loved for life.

"The idea for Loved 4 Life emerged around the time of the death of the Kahui twins, when I found myself asking what we could do in the community as New Zealanders, to ensure our babies are loved and supported," she said.

"OECD statistics showed New Zealand was the third-highest country with infant mortality through violence, a factor that also really drove me."

Wanting to encourage parents, and establish parenting support networks in communities, Mrs Guest-McGrath worked with midwives and eager volunteers from all over the country.

"Loved 4 Life sees that every baby is welcomed in to the community with a fabulous Loved quilt, and every family is given a home-cooked meal in the first weeks when they're sleep-deprived."

Among those distributed over the past six years were 73 quilts sent to Christchurch after the 2010 and 2011 earthquakes.

The organisation, which recently started the distribution of knitting for premature babies, has also created a range of parenting workshops and runs coffee mornings in Kapiti in an effort to bring parents together.

"I feel very privileged to have helped access resources that are available in our community, to do something wonderful.

"My vision for every New Zealand baby is that they are loved, cherished and nurtured in a safe environment."

Read more
To read about more nominees click here.