About & fundraising
In 2021, Cradled was launched as a very small business to support New Zealand families in early parenting. Dr Heather Johnston offers consultations for breastfeeding medicine, unsettled babies, responsive and holistic approaches to infant and toddler sleep, infant and perinatal mental health, and responsive parenting. Heather is a medical doctor, lactation consultant, Holistic Sleep Coach, and Circle of Security Parenting facilitator - as well as a mum to three young kids.
The landscape of parenting approaches is shifting and changing over time, but there is still such an overwhelming amount of disempowering and challenging advice out there, that doesn't serve every family when it comes to how they want to raise and respond to their little ones. Services like Cradled provide an alternative approach, placing families and relationship at the centre of everything, not pathologising things that are normal or developmentally appropriate, while getting the best evidence-based support for the things that are outside that normal range.
Lots of families and professionals that align with the Cradled kaupapa (cause) find that they can sometimes feel a bit isolated - Heather designed the range of Cradled merch so that these parents and supporters can feel proud in the important work they are doing nurturing tiny humans, and maybe so they can signal to others that they're not alone.
The merch range was also created as a fundraiser.
- 10% of profits go towards the Cradled "Pay It Forward Fund" - a fund that goes towards subsidising or covering the cost of Cradled consultations for families who would otherwise be unable to afford them. One day, we hope that there will be public funding for these essential services - but til then, we rely on the generosity of the Cradled community to support one another!
- A further 10% of profits will go towards other groups, charities or providers in our communities who are supporting parents, babies and children, or other marginalised groups, and whose mahi (work) aligns with the Cradled kaupapa (cause) of prioritising relationship, mental health and evidence-based practice in this space.