Managing Our Message

A key part of expanding public interest in midwifery is effective education about midwifery and what it offers women. We know public relations is important to you, which is why we’ve started the Public Education Project (PEP), with the generous support of the A.C.N.M. Foundation, Inc.

We are implementing PEP in partnership with Jones Public Affairs, a woman-owned firm with expertise in health care issues. Our strategy is to identify our strongest, most effective messages and convey them to key audiences in a creative and compelling way.

Our first step in the process was to listen to you, our members, through a needs assessment survey. We were so pleased (but not surprised!) to receive over 500 responses, and your responses gave us important insights in crafting our messages. For example:

• You told us that pain during childbirth is the number one concern for the pregnant women you care for.
• You cited one-on-one attention and low intervention rates as reasons women seek your care.
• Most importantly, you indicated that low interventions, control, and empowerment are reasons you give to persuade mothers to seek midwifery care.
• Half of you note that the community is aware of your presence, but about a third of you say that they are not fully aware of the scope of services you provide.
• You agree that consumers are the number one group we should target.

The needs assessment gave us a platform of three core attributes of midwifery care to amplify in our messaging: individualized/woman-centered care, whole woman care, and specialized care. Using this platform, we conducted a message workshop in August. Midwives from DC, Maryland, Virginia, Florida, and Michigan and key staff participated in the workshop.

We developed a set of core and supporting messages from this workshop and these messages have already been incorporated into our work, including the stamps project (see page 1) and in a story we submitted to a national syndicate that will be picked up in media across the country in the next year (See “Women Turning to Midwives for Personalized Care” on this page).

In addition, we have fielded a survey to measure the power and impact of these messages on consumers. We are excited that early results are very positive. We will provide you with a more detailed report in our next issue.

Moving forward, we will be working to reach out to media and create new tools that will be appealing to consumers and better equip you to reach out to women in your community.

Public Education Prjoect Activities

Midwifery-themed U.S. postage stamps

Art contest for images for the 2009 stamps (Deadline: February 27, 2009)