Usually you will find Nest’s staff assisting in the community and teaching in schools promoting awareness, understanding and empowerment around sexuality, health and wellbeing. This year they are also looking to assist further afield.

They are linking up with the awesome charity ‘Days for Girls’.
and are organising a trip to Cambodia in early July. Why?: To distribute recyclable menstrual packs, provide information and education about their care and use and facilitate puberty info lessons to the girls and women living in rural communities.

This project involves the entire community with individuals, Guides, Girls Brigade and other groups invited to contribute by either:
* sewing recyclable pads (patterns provided)
* holding a ‘sewathon’
* collecting donations
Nest Consulting’s senior Educator has completed the Days for Girls training to provide the education, practical skills and information crucial to each community in regards to hygiene, care of kits and understanding/de-stigmatising around menstruation.

Providing girls with such packs enables them to attend school more regularly and breaks a cycle of poverty. Not having sanitary supplies meant DAYS without school and Days of isolation. Girls use leaves, mattress stuffing, newspaper, corn husks, rocks, anything they can find…but still miss up to 2 months of education and opportunity every year. It turns out this issue is a surprising but instrumental key to social change for women all over the world.

Days for Girls info:

• Founded in 2008
• Minimal 4% overhead
• Days for Girls kits last 2-3 years
• Each kit gives girls 180 days over 3 years
• Presence on 6 continents
• Serving in 85+ countries
• Reached over 200,000 girls…and counting!

As reported in the NZ Herald Today (Dec 30) ‘Nearly three-quarters of New Zealanders feel that the Roast Busters case showed high school students needed to be taught about respectful attitudes to sex, not just the mechanics of sexual intercourse.’

This is a statement that Robyn Fausett, from Nest Consulting: a company that delivers in-school sexuality education, utterly agrees with. As Nest Consulting’s owner & senior educator, Robyn, who is also a fertility nurse and an accredited educator with NFNZ, put together several interactive programmes aimed at tweens and teens to address exactly that. Ensuring each programme is suitable for its target audience, with parent inclusion as appropriate (a parents information evening is held prior to the Puberty Programme aimed at either Yr 5/6 or Yr 7/8) the courses are carefully constructed to discuss not only the ‘mechanics’ of body changes/body functions etc but also the psychological and sociological aspects & impacts.

‘My philosophy has always been that sexuality education needs to be delivered holistically & age appropriately as a collaborative effort from home & school’, says Robyn, who is also a parent of three teenagers. ‘Along with the biology there needs to be discussion & skill development around good decision making, identity, good body image, media awareness, relationships and the meaning of consent: only then can our young people feel empowered to make respectful and informed choices’.

To check out Nest Consulting’s Sexuality Programmes which range from ‘Positive Puberty Plus’ for Yr 5/6 or Yr 7/8 to ‘Fertility Awareness & Responsibility’ for girls in Yr 10 – 13 to ‘Sensitive Subjects’: a challenging discussion programme for Yr 12/13.

ENDS

© Scoop Media

Our very own Fertility nurse and Natural Fertility New Zealand Accredited Educator, Robyn Fausett answered your questions on fertility and charting, hosted by Essential Mums.

Timing is everything when it comes to falling pregnant, but knowing what time of the month is the best to increase your chances of getting pregnant, can be tricky.

A woman’s ovum can live for 12 to 24 hours after being released from the ovary, while a man’s sperm can live in the genital tract for up to seven days. While many believe that you ovulate on day 14 of every cycle, the truth is you can ovulate earlier or later than this.

Charting your temperature is one of the ways a woman can understand and identify the natural changes the body goes through, which indicate when you are most likely to ovulate.

Understanding the terminology and biology behind fertility can be quite tricky .

Robyn Fausett, a Natural Fertility New Zealand Accredited Educator will be joining us today at lunch time (1pm) to answer your questions about charting. Join us on the live chat.

Robyn, who is a practising fertility nurse, owns and runs, Nest Consulting . Her services include a range of lectures on body talk, puberty, fertility and self awareness.

She has also battled with her own fertility journey.

“At a young age, as a student nurse, I discovered I had poly-cystic ovaries (PCOS) a hormonal condition that, in my case, meant my ovaries were not releasing an egg each cycle. This information led me to place a high level of priority on achieving a pregnancy and subsequently led to three years of infertility,” she says.

“During the high tech treatments that followed I was also introduced to an amazing nurse who taught me about natural fertility and charting. I found the understanding of this scientific method which allowed me to interpret what my body was telling me each month invaluable.”

Robyn says charting did not only reconnect her with her body which she was beginning to feel alienated from, but it also allowed her a bit of control and planning into her and her partner’s quest for a family.

“Ultimately I was lucky and have two, now almost grown, children. I will never however forget the pressures infertility place on women and couples. I believe having the understanding and education about your body is a crucial element in empowering yourself.”

While Robyn is able to comment on issues relating to charting, any question/answer is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition.
For the Question/Answer page go here:
http://www.essentialmums.co.nz/pregnancy/conception/trying-to-conceive/8929248/Live-chat-with-Robyn-Fausett
and for the summary Published on July 19, 2013 go here:
http://www.essentialmums.co.nz/pregnancy/conception/trying-to-conceive/8934570/Temperature-charting-Q-and-A