Our Story

How do you ever know where a story starts! Let’s say it was back in the eighties. That was when we first recognised the need and first had the idea of developing schools for parents.

This was a time when, world-wide, there were high rates of sudden unexpected deaths of babies and no known cause. In our own city of Christchurch there were seven such deaths per one thousand live births every year. Understandably, anxiety amongst parents was high. They had a thirst for understanding. We stepped into this need and designed a community education campaign to highlight the known needs of babies and how parents might reduce risks and increase protection.

In the early 1990’s we went a step further and teamed up with a local family-owned baby store on a ‘good-will, independent, no funds’ basis. We ran free practical baby classes each week covering everything from changing nappies to preventing SIDS (cot death). The store provided a room to meet, promoted the classes in their advertising and handled bookings.

Busy workloads for us and business changes for the baby store saw these classes end in 2002. Yet the idea stayed. And, unknown to us, the reputation of the classes also stayed. Midwives who remembered feedback from their clients have committed to supporting the initiative into being.

On 11 October 2008 we opened the Tender Shoot™ school and held the first ’First Baby’ course for a group of twelve parents. Based on the recommendations of just a few supportive midwives, parents have already booked to capacity every class for 2008. The idea is now a reality. We are loving the learning and so are parents. We hope that word of mouth will take it forward.

“There is nothing so powerful as an idea who’s time has come.” Victor Hugo