GET DAILY REPORT FREE
Hear Her Concerns, a local campaign by Healthy BR’s Maternal and Child Health Consortium aims to prevent pregnancy-related deaths by sharing potentially lifesaving messages about urgent maternal warning signs.
After two years in the works, the consortium launched the CDC’s Hear Her national campaign this year on a local level.
“There’s too many people that are dying unnecessarily,” Hope Hickerson, executive director of HealthyBR, says. “These are preventable deaths in the United States and Louisiana from complications related to pregnancy and or delivery. We know that number is even higher for Black and brown women. There’s no way you can say you have a healthy city without addressing this and without trying to improve the social determinants of health equity.”
The campaign will be an ongoing effort including digital, social media, billboards, posters and postcards that spread awareness about urgent maternal warning signs. The consortium will also share printouts with scripts for mothers to use when advocating for themselves in hospitals or social environments. The campaign’s marketing materials will feature local women’s stories and their experiences with pregnancy and postpartum complications.
The consortium plans to host community meetings, conversations, surveys and training around self-advocacy, pregnancy-related complications and urgent maternal warning signs.
HealthyBR received a $15,000 Humana Horizons grant to launch Hear Her Concerns. The consortium is led by representatives from HealthyBR/Mayor’s Office, Family Road of Greater Baton Rouge and the Louisiana Department of Health. It partners with more than 100 local hospitals, nonprofits focused on maternal and child health, and local sororities.
At the Hear Her Concerns brunch launch event in late September, local hospitals and agencies signed a commitment saying that they would have information about Hear Her Concerns on-site and help spread the message.
