October 25, 2023
Feisty midwife stood up for pepe
Whānau and fellow midwives in Te Matau ā Maui have farewelled Hastings midwife Ripeka Ormsby, who died after a short illness.
Ms Ormsby was at the centre of the 2019 effort to stop a pepi being uplifted from Hawke’s Bay Hospital, which led to four inquiries and an overhaul of Oranga Tamariki’s procedures.
Ngā Māia Māori Midwives Aotearoa chief executive Jean Te Huia says she was a longstanding friend, a valued member of the Ngāti Kahungunu community and someone willing to challenge the way indigenous hapū māmā are treated.
“We look at Australia, Canada, United States of America and we can see that their hapū māmā have also undergone huge changes in the way they traditionally birthed and stripped off the cultural identity, stripped of the traditional birthing knowledge and practices and eroded the very heart and fabric of whānau,” she says.
The funeral for Ripeka Ormsby was held on Saturday.