“Own Every Piece” Campaign Promotes Reproductive Wellness and Birth Control Access to More than 3 Million Women

The Own Every Piece campaign was created by researchers at the UTHealth Houston School of Public Health and CHPPR to improve women’s access to birth control in Houston. Using social media, radio ads, and in-person outreach, the campaign reached more than 3 million women with birth control information and resources, connections to local clinics, and messaging intended to shift control norms, dispel myths, and foster open and honest conversations about women’s sexual and reproductive wellness.

Texas has one of the highest teen birth rates in the US, and the highest rate of repeated teen pregnancy. In some parts of Houston, teen birth rates are nearly three times the national average. Better use of more effective contraceptives could help lower these rates, but limited access to resources, social shame and stigma, and provider biases inhibit contraceptive use, particularly among women of color and minority women.

From 2017-2022, the Own Every Piece team developed and disseminated a series of social media advertisements and online content and activities to promote and normalize discussion of birth control and sexual health among women online. They also engaged social media influencers to create original content focused on generating real conversations about female sexuality and reproductive wellness. These efforts garnered more than 60,000 visits to the Own Every Piece website and 3 million impressions on social media while prompting important community dialogue.

To expand their reach, the team held a number of in-person events, distributed branded apparel, and partnered with healthcare providers to distribute reproductive health information directly to patients. The Own Every Piece website also offered a clinic directory to connect women directly to clinic partners for care along with free Lyft ride codes women could use to get rides to the clinics. More than 1,600 women visited the Own Every Piece clinic directory page and 125 used the free ride code to visit a clinic for services.

In 2022, the team also conducted the Houston Experiences in Reproductive (HER) Health Survey, which asked Houston women under age 45 about the challenges and influences they experienced related to contraception use. Along with live Q&As conducted online and feedback from influencer partners, this provided valuable insights into reproductive health barriers faced by Houston women.

The success of Own Every Piece now informs a broader effort to address inequities in reproductive health called The Collective Action for Reproductive Equity (CARE) Center. The CARE Center carries on the work of Own Every Piece through community-engaged research, training for health professionals, and promotion of community dialogue around female reproductive wellness. In the long term, the CARE Center aims to create a sustainable, collective infrastructure across multiple partners and stakeholders that can continue to tackle key systemic issues facing reproductive health and wellness for years to come.

Own Every Piece is led by Investigators Kim Baker, DrPH and Susan Tortolero Emery, PhD, CPH. For more information on Own Every Piece visit: https://www.owneverypiece.com/our-work/