Keynote General Session: Crafting a Strategic Plan in 60 Minutes: Building Advocacy Campaigns With Lasting Impact

We are bringing back this session to brainstorm effective ways to advocate for an issue close to all our hearts. We will work together to isolate key terms and messaging points, organize them into a coherent narrative, and align messages to tactics and target audiences.

Alex Dickinson, Beekeeper Group (moderator)
Anna Hall, Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine

Notes

Topics: 

• Including pregnant/lactating women in clinical trials
  • Initiatives at the federal level to ensure women are included, not excluded
  • Support funding to support maternal health
• Focus on reproductive health at the state level 
• The goal is to provide education to people who might be, are pregnant
• People don’t know crisis exists; maternal health is a key indicator of a nation’s health. US’s is so bad it shows we have a long way to go

First task: Think about audiences – who are we trying to reach?

• Audiences:
  • Pipeline 1: People
    • Young women
    • Young men
    • Mothers
    • Black women – extreme inequity; mortality and morbidity is 3x higher than white women 
    • Women who have experienced a problem and have a story to tell
  • Pipeline 2: Clinicians
    • Other practitioners – alternative medicine
    • Pediatricians
    • Med students/educators
  • Pipeline 3: Institutions
    • Insurance
    • Hospitals
• With this background, come up with at least one tactic to introduce this topic to our audiences
• *Brainstorming time*

“Clumping” 

• • Some things might be applicable to multiple audiences, some to a single audience
  • What’s our big goal? 
  • People

• BIG: Target and shame insurance companies 

• • • Targeting baby lists/baby registries – specific products, target their support system; + mom blogs
    • Influencer engagement – mom blogs, gender reveals; physician influencers; others not in the healthcare space; couple influencers; hair salons; religious institutions
    • Coalition building
    • Webinars
    • Letters to the editor
    • Visual storytelling
    • Focus on more amplification

• BIG: Build awareness

• • • Using libraries
    • App/book/podcast
    • Education materials; Webinars, Multi-lingual education materials, Fact Sheets for doctors’ offices
    • For communities where doctors are not trusted, build trust in other ways to provide education
  • Clinicians
    • Coalition building among practitioners
    • Continuing education

• BIG: Mortality review committees

• • • Comprised of doctors
    • Review any maternal death, and why it happened – funded by the federal gov’t
  • Letters to the editor – cross over audiences
  • Story collection
    • Lived experiences
    • Family
    • Nurses
    • Success stories
• Institutions – The hardest thing to change – big systems
  • Policy change
  • Advocacy
  • Maternal health engagement/outreach
  • University systems
  • Mandated courses
  • Working further up the pipeline – connect with leaders (OBGYN chair etc.) 
  • Many physicians are educators – teach with an equity lens
  • Many do not receive public health training
  • How to teach upstream in the education system? 
    • Understand/identify gaps (across audiences)
    • Landscape audit
    • All students have to do rounds; identify teaching hospitals, how long are rounds, and are students seeing critical cases
  • Afterbirth pilot program
  • Aftercare kit
  • Follow-up visits
  • Funding for training
  • GME
  • Partnership between universities and elementary STEM
  • Briefing at NAIC
  • Building a coalition
  • White papers
  • Workshops at institutions/med schools

Think big – what’s the biggest change we could see from this? 

• Michelle Obama + Beyonce interview on Super Bowl ad
• Patience education to advocate
• Increase awareness
• Women’s March for Maternal Health
• Medicaid coverage for up to 1 year 
• Start with Medicare/Medicaid, private insurance will follow
• Better insurance for maternal
• Committee funding 
• Universal change in protocols – NIH guidance
• Policy changes:
  • Extend postpartum care
  • Paid leave eligibility 
  • Universal access to more parental leave
  • Expanded postpartum care
• Outcomes:
  • Lowered morbidity/mortality
  • Increased level of care