Today the Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt announced the launch of the Our Chance campaign for safer pregnancy at the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, in London. Best Beginnings is proudly leading the campaign with Sands (the stillbirth and neonatal death charity). The campaign sits alongside an ambitious wider reform package for front line maternity care. Our Chance focuses on the role parents can play, in partnership with healthcare professionals, in maximising their chances of healthy pregnancies and births for themselves and their babies. 

Introduced by presenter and model, Abbey Clancy, Our Chance shines a spotlight on a series of 24 important pregnancy, birth and beyond topics that can impact health outcomes for parents and babies. Each topic is covered by parents and professionals sharing their real-life stories and experiences and can be viewed in the Baby Buddy app and online version of Baby Buddy, where parents have access to more than 200 other short videos covering all manner of topics, including mental health, in relation to the journey to parenthood and beyond.

As with all the Baby Buddy resources, these films were developed in collaboration with various royal colleges, other health organisations, charities and with parents. Parents also informed the look, feel and tone of all the content in the campaign to make sure that the Our Chance campaign content is engaging and accessible. Alison Baum, CEO Best Beginnings, and Clea Harmer, the CEO of Sands,  addressed the press following the Health Secretary's announcment. The aim of the campaign is to empower parents with knowledge and confidence and signpost an array of maternity support services.

Here is Clea Harmer, the CEO of Sands, sharing her insights about the #OurChance campaign with the audience: 

The motivation behind Best Beginnings and our passion behind the #OurChance campaign was shared by Alison Baum, the CEO of Best Beginnings.

Alison also appreciates all the partner organisations who have endorsed the Our Chance films and showcases the different ways that we can access and share these films in our communities and networks. 

The campaign will run until mid January #OurChance #SaferPregancy. Jeremy Hunt said, "the new campaign is a game-changing moment and will help us halve the rates of stillbirths, neonatal deaths, maternal dealths and brain injuries occurring during or soon after birth by 2030" and Alison Baum said, "We are so proud to be jointly leading the ground-breaking Our Chance initiative with Sands and thanks to the support of the Department of Health, NHS England and Public Health England." Clea Harmer, CEO of Sands said, "We are delighted to be jointly leading this ground-breaking project, which is the culmination of many years of work wtih the Department of Health. We're particularly excited about reaching younger people, to help them have safer pregnancy whether they are planning on having a family now or in the future."

We'd like to thank all the parents, charities and health professionals who helped create the Our Chance films and for supporting the campaign.