How to be an agent of change

I wrote something up last week. It wasn’t something I worked real hard to plan, just sort of rattled off about my own fail and what I had learned and hit “publish.”

I wasn’t expecting the response to it over the following few days–the ones that moved me the most were from women who had children they were not parenting–the birth mothers themselves.

Monday morning, 3 days after my post went up, I got a message on Facebook thanking me for my post and directing me to this status update from Parker Adventist Hospital in Colorado which included a link to my post:

At Parker Hospital, we just changed all our guidelines to discuss “patients pursuing an adoption plan” not how to care for “Birthmoms”- A woman is not the “Birthmom” to a child until she makes her decision final. We are working on shifting our words to reflect more accurately her decision process. This blog defines it well…

Forget popsicles for breakfast—that’s the way to start a day. I was so excited–not because of any glory to me because it wasn’t my blog post, my overthinking that led to that major policy change. No, no. It was the voices that went before me, the passionate ones who shared with the policy makers the same message over and over again and felt like they were banging their heads against the wall. They said, “nothing I do makes any difference,” “I don’t know why I try,” “This isn’t worth my effort.” But, seeds were planted and started to take root. I just got to be a part of the last step, the one that ushered in change.

That’s how you become an agent of change for whatever it is you are passionate about. You just keep on keeping on, long obedience in the same direction, even when it seems like it isn’t doing a thing. Your success as a change agent isn’t about an immediate response to your initiative; it’s not really anything about you. It’s just about doing what you are supposed to do and having others do the same. 

In response to all the comments on Parker Hospital’s Facebook page, the hospital itself responded:

spread the word – raise the bar for all hospitals, demand they educate their nursing staff and update their policies to reflect current practice! Know an OB nurse? CEO of a hospital a family friend? Ask them about their hospital’s protocol and how it embraces all parties involved! Point them to Parker Hospital . . . we would love to share this model with other hospitals!

It was the advocates for women considering adoption who went before me. It was my simple act of writing about my own fail and lesson learned. It was the people who read my simple words and shared them. It was the policy makers at the hospital who are now change agents themselves. Change begets change.