Pampers - Supporting Parents

As a working mother of four, I know first-hand how it feels to wonder whether my husband and I were doing the right things for our children. While being a parent and raising a baby is one of the most amazing things you can experience in your life, it also brings periods of self-doubt when facing new challenges, especially when balancing them with your career. 

I’ve learnt a lot over the years including how to find the confidence to be a working mom, but it hasn’t been an easy path. That is why I am so passionate about supporting others in their own personal journeys. I am fortunate that everyone in my team embraces our purpose of not only caring for babies’ happy and healthy development but also supporting parents and caregivers. As a brand, we have the responsibility (and the privilege) to support and uplift parents today and tomorrow, as they take on the very important role of caring for their babies.

My reflections on my first year as CEO

My first reflection is about the lessons I took from a global parenting study we conducted in 2019, which highlighted some of the challenges of modern parenting and particularly the impact of social media. One of the global lessons that stood for me was the need to support parents as they face and tackle these modern-day challenges. This showed us the importance of encouraging parents to be more compassionate to themselves and to each other, and to help them rediscover the joy of parenting.

We then created the Share The Love campaign to remind moms all over the world to not be too tough on themselves and to cheer them on their parenting journey. The campaign acted both as a reminder that as parents, we’re doing a good job, and as a trigger to acknowledge and celebrate others.

We also saw that we can do more to specifically support dads. In the US, dads face the logistical challenge of not having access to diaper changing tables in men’s restrooms. So, to help, Pampers has committed to installing over 5,000 diaper changing tables in men's restrooms over the next 3 years.

In the last 12 months, we’ve also been able to focus on a commitment made to support premature babies. Out of 135 million babies born every year, 10% globally are born prematurely and we can help protect what’s vital for their early development – sleep. At Pampers, we developed our smallest diaper, specifically designed to support preemie babies and protect their uninterrupted sleep. In the UK, we also made the promise that for every pack of preemie diapers bought, we would donate a pack to a hospital – with the help of families across the country we will be donating over a million diapers to Neonatal Intensive Care Units and the babies who need them.

Stepping up our efforts in extraordinary times

With the global pandemic and the resulting lockdowns, parents now have to face the unprecedented challenge of providing 24/7 childcare. For working parents, this often meant juggling their parental and professional roles within the confines of their home. Our Pampers employees in China, one of the first impacted by the lockdown, quickly crafted helpful tips and advice such as Indoor Activities and Playtime Ideas for babies. As the pandemic spread across the globe, we reapplied our tips to help parents with babies as they lived through lockdown.

In the US, we acted on the insight that mothers-to-be are cautious and, in some cases, unable to attend childbirth classes during the lockdown by creating a 9-part childbirth education video series that parents can follow from the comfort of their home as they prepare for their upcoming labor and delivery.

Because of the extended lockdown in some countries, we saw that a number of families were feeling the emotional and logistical pressures of grandchildren being separated from their grandparents, who often play a key role with shared childcare. To respond to this, we created a campaign in Europe with grandchildren leaving heartfelt messages to their grandparents telling them how much they were missed, reminding them to stay safe at home and letting them know that they look forward to their first hug when they can safely reunite.

As the pandemic continues, it is important to continue reminding parents that they are doing a good job. In Brazil, we launched a new campaign to cheer on parents because we know that Covid-19 has brought a lot of anxiety and we wanted to reassure them that their babies benefit from the additional time they are able to spend together as a family.

As I write this and as we continue to find ourselves living through extraordinarily tough times, it is important that we take the time to listen, to understand and to help parents, grandparents and caregivers in their own individual and personal journeys. We should all remember to be compassionate to each other and remind ourselves to find the joy in parenting. I want us to share our experiences, support one another and cheer on all parents.