• by Les Luchter , April 30, 2026

“Prenatal nutrition standards in the U.S. are broken,” blared the headline of a full-page ad in the April 26 Sunday edition of The New York Times.

The text that followed, calling on readers to sign an online petition demanding updated government standards, was signed by Julie Sawaya and Ryan Woodbury, co-founders and co-CEOs of women’s health supplement company Needed. 

“National pregnancy and breastfeeding nutrition standards were first established in 1941,” the two execs tell Marketing Daily in another joint written statement, adding that those 85-year-old standards were based on research data from 1 million people -- but fewer than 5% of them “were pregnant or breastfeeding. In fact, most of them were men.”

As a result, they say, “the vast majority of pregnant women in the U.S. take a prenatal vitamin, yet 95% are left nutritionally depleted in at least one key nutrient. Needed is calling on Congress and other key federal agencies for updated, modern standards grounded in current pregnancy and lactation-specific research, reflecting women’s actual physiological needs.”

The standards are important because they "guide doctors' recommendations and prenatal vitamin formulation."

The brand chose The New York Times for its ad because “it felt like the right place to get loud,” Sawaya and Woodbury say, “It reaches the consumers and practitioners who need to hear this message - and the decision-makers who have the power to change it.” 

It marks the first print advertising for the nine-year-old brand, which in November also launched its first out-of-home campaign, tied to the New York City marathon. The OOH, the women note, “celebrated motherhood as the ‘ultimate endurance sport’ deserving of radically better nutritional support.”

Otherwise, the brand has been built “mostly digitally and through practitioner-driven community and awareness,” they explain.

The Times ad kicked off other marketing activity on behalf of the petition drives, including amplification by practitioner and influencer partners, social media messaging and a Los Angeles event on Monday featuring Erin Foster, creator of the Netflix romcom series “Nobody Wants This,” discussing the need for updated nutritional standards with her OB-GYN, midwife and doula.

In May, Needed will sponsor the Chamber of Mothers’ 2026 Power Breakfast at the Library of Congress, whose theme is “Nourish a Mom, Nourish the Nation.” 

The petition site gives a goal of 20,000 signatures and by Thursday, Needed had already garnered over half of them.

But the more signatures, the better.

“The ad and digital campaign are designed to do two things: raise public awareness and drive petition signatures that put real pressure on Congress and key federal agencies to act,” Sawaya and Woodbury write. “The more people who sign, the harder it becomes for decision-makers to ignore.”

“What's struck us most is how many women have responded saying they were doing everything ‘right’ and still struggling, they say. “That kind of resonance reinforces that this is a conversation that was long overdue.”

The petition will ultimately be delivered to “members of Congress and relevant agencies such as HHS, NIH, and USDA,” they explain, adding that “updating nutrition standards is a multistep process that can take years. What we're focused on right now is initiating that process.”

 “Real success looks like a shift — in public awareness, in political will, and ultimately in policy,” the execs state. “A successful campaign means more people understand why this matters, Congress and key federal agencies feel the pressure to act, and we move meaningfully closer to nutrition standards that were actually built for pregnant and breastfeeding women.”