FARE welcomes the Australian Government's continued investment in the Every Moment Matters campaign to support alcohol-free pregnancies and safe breastfeeding practices across Australia.
As part of the 2024-25 Federal Budget, the Government announced funding of $5 million to continue the campaign.
Developed by the Foundation for Alcohol Research and Education (FARE) and funded by the Australian Government, the campaign's evaluation demonstrates it's making an impact.
Among women who had seen the campaign, there was a significant increase in the number of women intending not to drink when trying to conceive, from 34.2 per cent to 54 per cent, and in the number of women who didn't drink when trying to conceive, from 30.7 per cent to 58.3 per cent.
Foundation for Alcohol Research and Education (FARE) CEO Caterina Giorgi welcomes the funding from the Australian Government and said the results show the campaign has effectively increased awareness, changed intentions and influenced behaviours when it comes to alcohol, pregnancy and breastfeeding.
"We welcome the commitment by the Australian Government of funding for the Every Moment Matters campaign and thank the Government for their ongoing support of this campaign.
"By creating supportive environments for alcohol-free pregnancies, together we can improve the health and wellbeing outcomes for our children, families and communities for future generations."
Sophie Harrington, Chief Operating Officer of the National Organisation for FASD Australia a partner in the development and delivery of the program, said the campaign was an important way of creating greater understanding about Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD), and how to prevent it.
"When FASD goes un-recognised, children and young people can be left without the right support, misunderstood, or even blamed for behaviours caused by their disability.
"The campaign resources we've developed are designed to support women who are at higher risk of having an alcohol-exposed pregnancy, and to ensure the services they engage with are FASD-informed."
Since launching in November 2021, the campaign has reached millions of Australians:
- 82 million+ completed views of the hero video online
- 14 million+ completed listens of the hero audio ad online
- 878,000+ views of pages on the campaign website
- 670,000+ individual visitors to the campaign website
Lived Experience Advocate, Jessica Birch said sharing her story as part of the strengths-based campaign was an important way of creating understanding of FASD.
"As someone who lives with FASD, I've realised the significance of education and sharing lived experience in addressing the challenges of dismantling stigma and discrimination.
"This campaign makes Australia a world leader in health education and awareness about alcohol, pregnancy and FASD."
In addition to changes in the target population, the campaign's evaluation also shows there was a significant increase in the proportion of Australians who know:
- what FASD is, from 51.5 per cent to 54.4 per cent
- that there is no safe number of standard alcoholic drinks a pregnant woman can consume on any one day to avoid harm to the developing baby, from 73.3 per cent to 79.6 per cent
- that there is no safe type of alcohol that can be consumed during pregnancy, from 69.2 per cent to 73.2 per cent
- that there is no safe time to consume alcohol during pregnancy, from 67.5 per cent to 73.5 per cent
