Your child lives with your choices, and a onesie

In a Queensland-first, Townsville Hospital will today launch a home-grown marketing campaign to improve the health outcomes of the youngest North Queenslanders.

The Your Child Lives With Your Choices campaign will go live on social media, billboards, radio, television and online this afternoon.

It comes as Townsville continues to lag in Queensland and Australia around key health indicators for children and infants.

Across North Queensland, 14 per cent of women smoked during pregnancy and eight per cent of babies were born with low birth weight – significantly higher than the Queensland average. Almost half of all children aged between five and six experienced tooth-decay while one in four children were classified as overweight or obese.

Townsville Hospital and Health Service Board Chair Tony Mooney said today was a landmark day in establishing a stronger dialogue between the Townsville Hospital and the Townsville community about a vital health issue.

“What we know if that from conception to two years of age is a unique window to establish healthy habits that can set a child up for a lifetime of good health,” Mr Mooney said.

“This campaign is all about supporting our community by educating them about good choices for the health of their children as well as linking them in with the services we provide right here in Townsville.

“The health of our next generation is paramount, and I am proud the Board committed $30,000 to support this important campaign.”

The campaign will run for eight weeks across Townsville with every baby born at The Townsville Hospital during that time to receive a campaign onesie.

The campaign provides home-grown advice about positive parenting behaviours from local families as well as local specialists.

Director of Paediatrics Dr Andrew White said access to reputable parenting information and support services could be hard to find.

“If you type parenting advice into Google you’d spend a lifetime trying to get through all the content and a lot of it is sketchy advice at best,” he said.

“We’ve had such an overwhelmingly positive response from my fellow doctors and clinicians in supporting this campaign and we’ve established an excellent bank of home grown resources.

“These resources cover oral health advice, vaccination advice, nutritional tips, how to create a safe sleep environment and the supports we provide as your child grows.

“We’ve also got personal stories of local families who have benefited from accessing the services that we provide to support people raising happy and healthy North Queenslanders.”

Resources for the Your Child Lives With Your Choice campaign are available here.

Mr Mooney said it appears this campaign was the first direct marketing campaign a hospital has instigated, funded and targeted its message direct to the local community.