Pink Elephants Circle of Support

1in4 pregnancies end in loss, millions of women each year are impacted by pregnancy loss globally. A study published by The University College of London and Professor Tom Bourne highlights how a ⅕ of women 9 months after a loss have clinical levels of anxiety, depression or trauma. We believe that pregnancy loss is the mental health impact most likely to impact women in their lifetimes. Despite it being common we have misperceptions of how it should be supported the cultural taboo and silence encourages shame and reduces access to support. Women need to have their losses validated as bereavement and offered a clear referral pathway for early intervention support. We are proposing the building of a globally accessible digital platform that would be one central source of information and support programs. We can drastically reduce the numbers of women who are suffering with PTSD, anxiety and/or depression.

There are an estimated 47million pregnancy losses each year globally. 47 million. Despite this there are just a handful of support organisations globally and most are outdated built in the 1970s with little ability to scale globally. Recent studies are linking miscarriages to trauma, anxiety, and/or depression, it is the mental health event that women are most likely to experience in their lifetime. If globally pregnancy loss is on the agenda of women’s healthcare and openly discussed it can remove barriers to access support. However early pregnancy loss is not even mentioned in the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, despite the sheer numbers it impacts. We believe this is because early pregnancy loss firmly sits in the middle of a very uncomfortable venn diagram - women’s health, sex, baby death, and periods. Culturally these are all significant taboo topics, traditionally miscarriage has been unspoken about and minimised in terms of the impact. It is often referred to as disenfranchised grief by psychologists. Last year the World Health Organisation shared a paper on the need for more support around pregnancy loss and validation of the experience as bereavement, no tangible action has come from this yet. 

We provide early intervention programs that reduce the likelihood of clinical anxiety, depression, or post-traumatic stress. We have created one central reliable source of information on early pregnancy loss (up to 24 weeks gestation) our content is evidence-based and peer-reviewed. Our emotional support literature in the form of resources has tripled in downloads this year, our resources support the woman through her loss and also her circle of support by educating them on how to support her. We offer a personalised peer support program whereby we connect women to other women who have lived experiences of pregnancy loss and can support them as they grieve, nurture them as they heal, and empower them beyond. We provide safe nurturing online communities that have more than doubled in membership this year, which enables women to foster meaningful connections with our ambassadors and others who are experiencing pregnancy loss. At this stage we facilitate everything via a website, Acuity booking system, and socials, we are looking to this grant to build a SAAS platform to host all of our programs on a global scale. 

Our primary target audience are females aged 24years - 44years who are trying to conceive. Our early intervention program lessens the likelihood of them experiencing clinical anxiety, post-traumatic stress, and/or depression which can last for up to 3 years post a loss. As Professor Tom Bourne published ‘Miscarriage induces an intense period of emotional distress which if left unsupported leads to clinical levels of anxiety and/or depression’. We ran a global support survey of 1700 women in 2018 of which 75% told us they feel unsupported through early pregnancy loss. We extended this survey with The University of Melbourne in 2018 and 88% told us they want a referral for support after pregnancy loss. 

 

We use CoDesign methods to build our support programs and to consistently iterate on them for improvements. We have run numerous CoDesign sessions with our beneficiaries and the key takeaway is that women want access to support programs to guide them through their bereavement specific to pregnancy loss. Women want early intervention programs like The Pink Elephants provides. Our support programs have been built by women who have lived experience of early pregnancy loss alongside clinical specialists who advise and peer review for us. 

We strongly relate to the MITSolve challenge of Maternal & Newborn health, we ensure that women receive access to early intervention programs bespoke to the needs of pregnancy loss right through to preconception and pregnancy after loss. Which we believe is the mental health event most likely to impact women in their lifetime. If these women are left unsupported the poor mental health outcomes are lasting and profound on them and their future children. Our work clearly reduces stigmas and lowers barriers to accessing support. Our community provides the solution with MITSolve we can begin to work on global access.

Our solution is innovative not only in its design thinking approach but also in comparison to competitors such as SANDS and other organisations. Our strength comes in our niche focus on early pregnancy loss (a loss up to 24 weeks gestation) Other organisations such as SANDS say they support miscarriage but that support is always sub set to Stillbirth support which then is a barrier for access to support as women minimise their experience and grief. Early pregnancy loss is a sizeable (47million women globally each year) mental health problem for women it does not warrant being lumped in as an afterthought to later term losses because society is better at validating a loss it can see. 

Further to this from the beginning when we identified the gap we also identified we wanted to create an organisation for our beneficiaries by those with lived experience alongside evidence from clinical professionals. We have invested significant time in many research projects from focus groups, robust surveys backed by ethics committee's to workshops with our community to ensure our service meets their needs. We are constantly iterating on our programs to improve them from an impact perspective but also from an efficiency and automation perspective. 

We have created a future fit organisation that is relevant to todays women who face this program and is not out of date clinical dry information like some of our competitors. We take pride in synthesizing difficult information and creating resources that are supportive, nurturing and empowering.

The technology that powers are early intervention support is digital our website hosts all of our relevant trusted content and is our one source of truth we direct our traffic through. Our website hosts plugins that facilitate our personalised peer support booking system, it also hosts Live Chat to enable women to access an ambassador at different times of distress. We are looking at the option to utilise a SAAS platform bespoke designed to meet the need of our services. As well as considering an app that could be globally accessible. We want to work with experts throughout the MIT Solve to help us understand and leverage the technology to deliver our mission at scale. 

Our online communities are currently hosted on social media as private groups this was a short term solution as it enables us to also reach women who are on socials. However we are now also looking as to whether SAAS may be a solution to hosting our forums. 

Problem

1 in 4 pregnancies end in loss or miscarriage. Published studies have linked miscarriage to clinical levels of anxiety, post traumatic stress and depression for up to three years post a loss. There is real lack of relevant and niche early pregnancy loss support globally. 

Activity/Outputs

We provide meaningful connections with other women with lived experience of early pregnancy loss that can offer true empathy and understanding through our personalised peer support and online communities. We are one central source of reliable, evidence based and peer reviewed information. We champion the change within workplaces and address legislation such as bereavement leave for early pregnancy loss. We raise awareness into the impacts of pregnancy loss through national campaigns. We foster clear health services referral pathways to ensure we are reaching women who experience an early pregnancy loss.

Inputs

Design thinking approach collaborative with community

Knowledge of published research and evidence base for our cause 

Collaborative qualitative and quantitative research methods some independently others collaboratively with leading Australian Universities. 

Knowledge of landscape globally, knowledge of SDG's, WHO, PMNCH Strategies 

Collaborations with global corporates, local, state and federal gov and other NGO's. 

Impact 

Government, corporates and other NGO'S referring to us Reduced Anxiety PTSD and/or Depression Validation that early pregnancy loss is bereavement Increased #circleofsupport reach Social Promotion 

Legislative Change

We currently support 3,782 via our website and downloads of resources each month. Our online communities support 2850 across the different communities. Within the next year we would like that to be 8500 per month or 103,000 a year from Australia. 

Our resource downloads have tripled this year and our online community participation has more than doubled. This is organic growth with out a push marketing strategy which we are looking to launch in October International Pregnancy Loss Awareness Month. 

Our 5 year strategy is being worked on at the moment we see no reason with the right technology and supporters why we couldn't be servicing around 7 million per year. We have the solution we are now looking at options to scale globally. 

I'm currently going through a Westpac Leadership course which is enabling me to grow as a leader to be able to grow the impact I can have on this community. I have just completed my altMBA with Seth Godin and am now working on our 5 year global strategy. 

We are back to research and design thinking working alongside our community and beginning to look at CALD, Indigenous and refugee communities to see how our support may translate across for their needs. 

Our number one goal is scale to ensure that no one walks the journey of early pregnancy loss alone. 47 million women each year globally are impacted by early pregnancy loss. We have only completed chapter one, it's time to become future fit scope out ways we can begin to scale significantly. I'd love to provide you with a clear SMART goal for this right now but we are literally working on this at the moment if we get through this will be in place for the September pitch. We are being supported by Modern Equivalent and Minter Ellison who are experts to help us with this next stage in our strategy to scale Pink Elephants. 

Financial and increased demand for support before we are ready are two key barriers. Which is why we are using external consultants to help us to be ready for the next 5 years. 

In four years we have grown from $10,000 income to $167,000 last year and this year we are on track for $350,000. We have sustainable revenue streams like regular giving programs, corporate sponsorships and programs, we are supercharging them to grow in line with our demand for support. 

Our demand for support has significantly increased in the last 4 months, our resources have tripled in downloads, are online communities have more than doubled and our personalised peer support has seen a 27% increase. 

We also urgently need to scope out the cultural & Indigenous piece to be more inclusive. 

Revenue we are focusing on sustainable untied regular giving, we are currently working on set for Oct launch our Inner Circle a community of regular givers of significant amounts that will fund our administrative costs. Which will then allow all other funds to go directly to the mission. Our corporate partnerships are growing sustainably

We have a core team of 4 paid staff, we have supplementary contractors for smaller roles and we have 4 skilled volunteers who donate their services in kind. We also have a formal board for governance and strategic overview and a clinical advisory committee to peer review our programs. 

We then have 12 peer support ambassadors who are all volunteers. 

I have strong leadership credentials and an adept ability to engage different stakeholders to support us to deliver our mission. I have an ability to think strategically and communicate our vision with the team to execute. I have received a Telstra women in business award, an AMP tomorrowmaker award and a Westpac Social Changemaker award in the last 12months. Validating the work I have done. I have also completed my altMBA in May 2020. 

Our COO has 10 years NGO background and 10 years prior in finance marketing. She has a strong lens for systems and processes as well as managing data and automation. 

Our Peer support Manager has lived experience as well as completing her double degree in clinical psychology. Our Clinical Pathways manager is an ex nurse with strong healthcare relationships we are able to leverage to create referral pathways. 

Our board have a strong and divers background our chairperson is a senior partner at Minter Ellison law firm, we have a CEO of marketing company, a senior researcher into e-health and online communities from The University of Sydney and a Senior Financial Director from EY. 

We also have very generous in kind support from consultants and corporates that we work with to strengthen us to deliver our mission. 

Together we are a formidable collective all driven by a shared vision that no one walks the journey of early pregnancy loss alone. 

We collaborate with other NGO's such as Beyond Blue, The Gidget Foundation, Jean Hailes womens health, Health Direct to create strong referral pathways for support.

We partner with corporates such as Commonwealth Bank of Australia, Minter Ellison and Tabcorp to deliver our Fertility in the Workplace program.

We collaborate with lead researchers at universities such as The University of Melbourne and The University of Sydney to carry out world leading research. 

We are a fully registered charity with DGR status in Australia, we provide an early intervention programs that lessen the likelihood of poor mental health outcomes such as anxiety, trauma and/or depression after pregnancy loss. When 1 in 4 pregnancies end in loss there is strong demand for a niche organisation such as ours. 

We support our beneficiary audience of women aged 24yrs - 44yrs with our #circleofsupport via online communities, emotional support resources and personalised peer support. We support them as they grieve, nurture them as they heal and empower them beyond. 

We champion positive change within workplaces, communities, health services and legislation through our other programs. Our Fertility in the Workplace program is one of the first globally offering support materials bespoke to workplaces as well as peer support ambassadors in workplaces. Our Leave for Loss campaign is lobbying federal government to make an amendment to existing bereavement/compassionate leave act to be inclusive of early pregnancy loss. 

We support health services by providing our emotional support literature to be handed to patients after a loss which provides them with a clear referral pathway for support. Without us they have nowhere to refer their patients and see much poorer long term mental health outcomes. We also empower our communities to seek additional healthcare support when they are showing signs of complicated grief. 

We have spent 4 years building out our vision, design thinking, evidence basing, innovating new programs and iterating on them. They are now at the point ready for scale to do this we need strategic advice and mentoring from those that have scaled NGO's for global impact from startup to successful global operations. We need help zooming in and focusing on our revenue generation portfolio and connections to PAFS, Angel investors who can invest in us to empower us to grow our #circleofsupport. 

To be able to work with a leading team at a leading TECHNOLOGY University to help us to future proof our technology to power our #circleofsupport is a next level crazy exciting opportunity!!! 

I'm also super keen to be part an incredible alumini of global peers all creating the change in the world we want to see. 

We need help evaluating which is the best technology to power our #circleofsupport at global scale. 

Exposure on a global level with marketing and media for our cause is instrumental to us breaking the silence, shattering the taboo and opening up meaningful conversations around supporting women through pregnancy loss. 

I am super eager to connect with the president of MIT L.Rafael Reif

"We will do more than talk about the greatest problems facing our world. We will set the course to solve them." 

When I read this quote it gave me goosebumps as someone who has spent 4years challenging the status quo and making an impact. Our organisation is on course to solve a global problem that impacts millions. 

Katja Iversen of Women Deliver is someone I admire hugely, her ability to look at our problem and help us to tackle it would be incredible. Her connections, drive and passion to support the health rights of young women would make a huge impact on a grassroots organisation such as ours. 

We would want to do further research before submitting an application for this program of work. However at this stage we see no reason why our early intervention programs with research couldn't be adapted for women in low and middle health income countries.