Healthcare in America is failing Black moms. Black women in the U.S are 3x more likely to die from pregnancy-related causes, and 60% of maternal deaths in the U.S are preventable.

Pampers has long advocated for confronting issues of parenting inequality, promoting open dialogue, and taking action. The time had come for the brand to take a new stand – fighting to improve the quality of healthcare for Black birthing parents.

“Evidence strongly supports the impact structural racism continues to have on our health care sector,” wrote the Association of Black Cardiologists, following a comprehensive study on Black maternal health (February 2021).

This critical life-and-death issue inspired Pampers to elevate its commitment to supporting parents, through educating on, and fighting against, the systemic failures that impact the health of black moms during their pregnancy and postpartum journey.

Our bold objective: reduce maternal morbidity and save lives through driving systemic change.

It's assumed that pregnancy is a time of excitement, expectation and joy for all moms, but when you look at the reality surrounding Black maternal health, that’s not the full story. Crisis, complexity, inequality, risk and anxiety are a heightened part of Black mothers’ experiences. Pregnancy and birth are scary – even scarier when you’re 3x more likely not to survive.

Despite this frightening reality – Black moms do still find joy. They fight for it, leaning into the joy of moments like childbirth while navigating a system that has consistently failed them.

Pampers has always believed that every parent deserves to experience the full joy of pregnancy and beyond, but words aren’t enough. That’s why Pampers committed to help change the systemic issues that prevent Black moms from receiving equitable care with the #RaiseCareDeliverJoy initiative. Because only when we raise the quality of care, can we deliver more joy.

Taking on this challenge required a deep commitment to and understanding of the issues parents face. We started by taking time to listen, research and deeply understand the issue, organizations and individuals driving change.

Our strategy was birthed – partnering with leading organizations to drive true systemic change. Key was taking the onus off Black moms to advocate for themselves; we didn’t want to work around a broken system, we wanted to help change it, so we could do better for Black moms and their families.

Tell Their Stories: Share the accounts of Black women who have overcome their own pregnancy and childbirth challenges.

Rally Allies: Support organizations and individuals already active in the space to accelerate program goals.

Convince Their Healthcare Providers: Ensure healthcare professionals working at the point of care are more aware of implicit biases and structural inequities and share our commitment to making change.

Core to our approach was partnering with leading organizations to drive systemic change. We started ‘behind-the-scenes,' delivering Implicit Bias training in hospitals. Then, we leveraged relevant touchpoints to educate and drive action.

We supported Black Mamas Matter Alliance for their fifth annual Black Maternal Health Week, including on-the-ground presence at Atlanta BMH walk and sponsoring a limited-edition NFT created by a Black artist with proceeds benefiting BMMA.

We announced $250,000 in new donations and released #RaiseCareDeliverJoy – a video evoking the Black pregnancy experience from pregnancy test to due date. To propel the announcement and video, we partnered with maternal health advocate and Olympian Allyson Felix to share her pregnancy journey, driving earned media coverage and video views/shares that generated an additional brand donation.

We elevated Change Makers making a difference and real parents by “sharing the mic” to tell their stories on Pampers Instagram to highlight maternal care disparities.

Our program has continually gained momentum since its inception last year. We’ve inspired new levels of information sharing, recruited more people to the cause, and achieved historically high engagement with Pampers consumers.

–More than 900 healthcare and medical professionals trained to recognize and counteract Implicit Bias to raise level of care for moms

–More than 30,000 parents positively impacted each year

–96% of #RaiseCareDeliverJoy video views were new accounts, showing how shareable and important the message was to reach more of the general public

–Pampers in-feed Instagram post highlighting black maternal health statistic was the most shared static post of 2022 and shared 196% more times than 2021 Black maternal health post

–12K+ visits to Pampers Maternal Health site

–$10K+ direct consumer donations via NFT/apparel to partner organizations

–Secured #1 Share of Voice over competitors during BMH Week; doubled Pampers weekly Instagram follower growth

–Generated 15 pieces of positive earned coverage, with more than 540 million earned media impressions overall and message pull-through.

Pampers will double its training of healthcare professionals by 2023. Our campaign is ongoing, and much remains to be done.