Through the voices of community doulas, The Doula Diaries revealed how trust, support, and storytelling can drive lasting change in maternal health.
When we began developing communications for CHC: Creating Healthier Communities’ Black Birthing Initiative, it was clear we needed a storytelling approach that could both educate and inspire action.
A challenge in telling the story of community health initiatives is striking a balance between privacy and impact. Because we could not share direct patient stories of those impacted by the Black Birthing Initiative, we needed a way to capture the human side of maternal health disparities without compromising confidentiality.
We also wanted to present the issue and the solution together to show the throughline from historical inequities in maternal care to the modern, community-driven work of doulas today. That vision became The Doula Diaries. The campaign drew from the history of Black midwives who once served as trusted care providers within their communities and connected that legacy to today’s community-based doulas, whose advocacy and support are helping improve birth outcomes for Black mothers and families.
The result was a digital storytelling campaign that honored that history while making the case for sustained investment in doula care.
Through video interviews, photo essays, and narrative posts, we brought visibility to CHC’s funding of local doulas and highlighted their voices as experts and advocates in their own right. The campaign resonated deeply, garnering more than 25,000 impressions on Meta platforms (Facebook and Instagram) and over 30,000 impressions on LinkedIn.
Building on the strengths of our team, we also secured media coverage for the campaign.
The Doula Diaries helped the public understand why this work matters and also demonstrated the power of community-led, equity-centered storytelling. By focusing on the doulas themselves, we were able to illuminate the solution, not just the problem, and strengthen the case for continued investment in maternal health equity.
Video Storytelling for Public Health Campaigns
Following the success of The Doula Diaries, I collaborated with the impact team to develop a video series to highlight the work of CHC’s Vaccination Equity Initiative, a program focused on removing barriers to HPV vaccination and cervical cancer prevention for underserved populations in Georgia. The videos centered the voices of those partners, allowing them to share their experiences in their own words and helping to reinforce CHC’s commitment to equity, collaboration, and community-led health solutions.