Every Mother Counts PART ONE

LisaG (me) 34 weeks pregnant ~ Photo by Heather Millennar


Mother's Day is the perfect opportunity to reflect not only how we appreciate and love our mothers, grand mothers, step-mothers, adoptive mothers or chosen mothers. It is also a time to reflect on how we got here, the actual process of child birth; a natural, relatively safe part of the female human experience, right?

WRONG! Worldwide more than 500,000 women die each year during childbirth and 90% of these deaths are preventable. Don't let your mind automatically jump to a hut in 3rd world or underdeveloped country right away. Developed nations like the US/Canada is included in that number.


Most of us remember Christy Turlington from the pages and covers of hundreds of fashion magazines. It can be argued that her face was one that defined the decade of 1990's fashion as she is one of the original "supermodels". She continues to model but is a lot more than a pretty face!

For Louis Vuitton 2011


She has now become the face and voice for the hundreds of thousands of women at risk globally for maternal death and complications. She has become a Maternal Health Advocate for the Cooperative for Assistance and Relief Everywhere (CARE) and enrolled in the Masters of Public Health program at Columbia University's Mailman School. She still did not feel like she was making the difference she desired so she has created an organization and associated web site called: EVERY MOTHER COUNTS (www.everymothercounts.org).



She has also created a documentary film called "No Woman No Cry" which will debut on the OWN (Oprah Winfrey Network) TOMORROW SATURDAY May 7th:

9:30pm Eastern & West Coast / 8:30pm Central
12:30am Eastern & West Coast / 11:30pm Central

AND

Sunday May 8:
1pm Eastern & West Coast / 12n Central

In Christy's words:

"I was inspired to make a documentary film that would share the stories of women at risk of becoming a mortality statistic. I hope that by bringing people together through the universal experience of birth, we can help create a mainstream maternal health movement that ensures the lives and well-being of mothers worldwide, for generations to come."


FILM TRAILER:




Take the time to watch the film and let it inspire YOU as a woman, a mother and a human being to get involved and help!

STAY TUNED FOR PART TWO WHERE I HAD A CHANCE TO ASK CHRISTY A FEW QUESTIONS REGARDING HER CAUSE AND WHAT YOU CAN DO TO HELP MOTHERS ALL OVER THE WORLD!