Dorothy Waide is a Karitane Mothercraft nurse and one of New Zealand’s most sought-after baby sleep consultants.
With over 30 years’ experience in post-partum care and child management, Dorothy qualified as a Karitane Mothercraft nurse in New Zealand in 1973, and has a background in hospital care for maternity and children’s wards, daycares and in-home 24 hour 7 days a week care.
Dorothy’s nurturing approach in calming the most unsettled babies reached the ears of Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta-Jones when they had their first baby so they invited Dorothy to live with them and help them, and again when they had their second baby.
They said, “We can honestly say we never found a baby-related problem that Dorothy was unable to solve. Her enormous sense of warmth, love and a down-to-earth philosophy always made us feel safe in our role as parents.”
Dorothy then spent more than 20 years overseas, sharing the homes of other Hollywood celebrities, media magnates and leading business people, helping them welcome their babies into the world.
Dorothy returned to NZ in 2010 and set up her BabyHelp consultancy, dedicated to teaching new mums everyday parenting skills, and she has created a USB stick with 5 tutorial videos.
In 2015 Dorothy wrote her book You Simply Can’t Spoil a Newborn: The essential Kiwi guide to nurturing your baby in the first three months which became a bestseller and this year is being reprinted due to its success.
Now Dorothy and Specialised Pregnancy and Paediatric Chiropractor, Dr Adeela Afiz, have created The Essential Baby Help Workshops which are held in various locations throughout Central and South Auckland, and focus on sleep, settling, feeding, digestion, swaddling, colic and reflux. The workshops are sponsored by Porse, NUK, ecostore, Dimples by Jane Anne and OHbaby!
Since 2010, Dorothy has been a guest speaker with Parents Centre throughout New Zealand. For over three years Dorothy has taught education workshops with West Auckland Parents Centre for their “Baby and You” sessions and has been a guest speaker for over two years with the Onewa Parents Centre.
Dorothy has also been a guest speaker at the Babyshows in Auckland, Whangarei, Dunedin and Wellington and Porse in Onehunga, Central Auckland and Meadowbank as well as Baby On The Move, Grey Lynn, Dimples by Jane Anne and Global Baby.
Since 2011, Dorothy has been OHbaby! Magazine’s sleep expert advisor and their speaker at their Coffee Catchups and is currently a guest speaker on their Live Facebook sessions on a monthly basis.
Dorothy also works with Dimples by Jane Anne as their sleep expert on their free Dimples Sleep Help.
Dorothy has written articles for OHbaby!, Little Treasures, Porse, and currently blogs for ecostore and Sleepytot.
Over the past 7 years Dorothy has featured on Seven Sharp, Breakfast, Good Morning TVNZ and helped Jenny-May Coffin with her twins on Whanau Living.
Dorothy has also featured in Next, New Idea, Kiwi Parent Magazine, Porse Magazine, Australian Women’s Weekly, NZ Herald, Stuff and regional newspapers and had radio appearances on The Hits, More FM, Newstalk ZB nationwide and other regional radio stations throughout the country.
Her philosophy is simple:
“I firmly believe that there is no right or wrong way of dealing with a baby – there are only easy ways and hard ways. My only non-negotiables are quality sleep and good food – twin pillars for a happy, nurtured baby.”
(video produced by OHbaby!)