The risk to unborn babies from alcohol has been making headlines for decades but Kiwis don’t seem to be heeding the warnings. At least 50 percent of women think that drinking some alcohol during pregnancy is safe and 80 percent of teen pregnancies are alcohol exposed, according to New Zealand surveys.
Determined to do something about this, the Rotary Club of Parnell teamed up with two community organisations, Well Women’s & Family Trust and Alcohol Healthwatch Trust to turn this situation around.
“Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) is a hidden and very misunderstood disability and it can be difficult for young women to make the link between social drinking and future harm to their child”, says Christine Rogan from Alcohol Healthwatch’s Fetal Alcohol Network, who worked on the project. Not to drink during pregnancy is an important message that needs to spread far and wide,” she says.
After consulting with communities and young people, the BABIES + BOOZE Youth Social Media Awareness Campaign was born. Youth were involved in the design and production of a social media resource, filming and performing in the videos. Their video material is accompanied on You-tube by discussion of the risk of drinking alcohol during pregnancy by Auckland Neonatologist Dr Simon Rowley as wells as poignant recollections of two birth mothers, whose drinking during pregnancy had an adverse effect on their children.
“There is still a long way to go to reduce the risk of FASD, but our hope is that this campaign will start to get the message across to the future parents of this country”, says Ms Rogan.
Wallet-sized cards with key prevention messages and links to the You-Tube videos can be accessed from www.fan.org.nz
The Campaign was launched at Ruapotaka Marae in Glen Innes on Thursday 18th October.
For further information contact:
Ms Ruth Davy, Rotary Club of Parnell Representative, Mob: 027 273 7033
Ms Christine Rogan, Fetal Alcohol Network NZ Coordinator www.fan.org.nz 0274467371
-------------------------- Project and Project PR Synopsis ------------------------
This project received the December 2012 District 9920 PR Award
The purpose of the project was to:
• to seek to educate potential parents of the risk of the mother drinking while pregnant
• target teenage girls, initially in low socio economic groups since
o research has shown a high incidence of ‘binge drinking’ in this group and
o 80% of all teenage pregnancies are unplanned.
Since this group has little exposure to traditional mass media channels but is an intensive user of social media, we decided that the primary channel for communicating our education message would be social media and use relevant community groups and services to reinforce the message.
Outcome:
The education programme was launched on October 18 at Ruapotaka Marae and its uptake to date has been very satisfactory.
Social Media Coverage:
• You tube “Babies and Booze” with 1,178 hits on 3 December 2012.
• http://www.youtube.com/user/FASDNetworkNZ or www.fan.org.nz
Public Image Coverage:
• Launch of the campaign at Ruapotaka Marae, Glen Innes, with significant media coverage including TVNZ Breakfast Show, radio interviews, Maori TV and promotion in public health media across New Zealand.
• Medical and public health publications and websites have either profiled the campaign or created a link to the FASD website.
Other coverage:
• A DVD resource to compliment the social media.
• Business card promotion with key messages matching the graphics of the above.
• Filming included to birth mothers’ experiences, two female actors (Pacific and Maori) relating a short version of birth mothers’ experiences, paediatrician Dr Simon Rowley discussing FASD, three plays performed by Maori and Pacific youth based on supporting your peers who are pregnant and how to get help.
• The DVDs are being circulated throughout the community to education providers and service providers working with young pregnant women.
