Thesis (BA Communication Arts) -- University of the Philippines Mindanao, June 2015

Studies around the world have shown that birth intervals are highly associated maternal deaths. Because of this, health practitioners and advocates around the world, such as the Department of Health in the Philippines, suggest that birth spacing should be highlighted and emphasized through health communication campaigns. According to the Department of Health in Region XI, there is no concrete communication plan that has been laid out to disseminate properly the tenets and significance of optimal birth spacing. The lack of communication plan, with Optimal Birth Spacing as the highlight and focus, resulted to majority of the couples of reproductive age still having Very Low Knowledge on Optimal Birth Spacing and on its health benefits and underlying health implications if not practiced. Because of this, the researcher designs a communication plan. The researcher concludes that there is a need to come up with a strategic, organized, and well-planned communication interventions plan. And since Social Marketing has been used in promoting health-related practices recently, the researcher explored and used Social Marketing principles for the Optimal Birth Spacing campaign. Social Marketing principles complemented well with the variables and tenets of the Theory on Planned Behavior. In this planning process, the researcher considered the knowledge, attitudes, beliefs, and other variable that lead to the facilitation of Optimal Birth Spacing among the audience and based the creation of campaign strategies to the said factors. The researcher further inferred that the Marketing Mix principles of Social Marketing allowed the researcher to come up with a clear, goal-driven, audience-centered communication plan.