Marketing maternity: Are we valuing the message over the medicine?
Imagine you’re a woman who just found out she is going to have a baby. You see a hospital advertisement for maternity care that includes words and phrases like “empowerment,” “personalized birthing plan” and “you decide.”
Sounds good, doesn’t it?
The advertisements present a menu of appealing services. Most pregnant mothers already want to have a say in the details of delivering their babies, so these advertisements play on that demand.
But what happens when the care provided doesn’t match marketing expectations?
It happened to a friend of mine, Caroline Malatesta, who is now in ongoing litigation with the hospital where she delivered her baby.
She chose the hospital based on their advertised flexibility and customization, discussed her birth plan with her doctor and arrived at the hospital assuming that the plan would be followed. During the delivery, she was told to lie on her back. When she protested that doing so was not part of the plan, the nurse simply told her that her doctor wasn’t on call.
A physical struggle ensued, forcing her to lie on her back. The child was delivered healthy, but instead of a joyful experience, Caroline now suffers permanent injuries.
While she didn’t have a specific birth plan, my wife delivered two of our sons at the same hospital and our experiences were positive.
But that’s the point.
Every interaction with health-care services is different. There are so many layers, protocols and decision-makers that the range of services offered to a single patient cannot possibly be captured in a short television or radio spot.
In the instance of maternity care, hospitals have their rules and protocols and the physicians who perform deliveries often operate as independent contractors with another list of delivery policies. Before a prospective mother ever voices her preferences, she faces a network of predetermined restrictions that may seriously and uniquely limit what has been advertised to her as a “customized” experience.
Add to the mix the fact that the on-call physician may have different rules than the patient’s regular doctor and “customized” might become “confusing” quickly.
The question we need to answer is whether marketing of maternity services should more closely resemble that of pharmaceuticals or if there is another way to make sure health-care consumers are adequately informed.
