Here's a sobering fact:Every 90 seconds a woman dies from complications of pregnancy. Even more sobering:90 percent of those deaths are preventable.
While lack of access to prenatal and postnatal care for women is an important issue to be aware of in general, it's especially salient this weekend of Mother's Day. Every Mother Counts is a campaign with just that purpose—”to increase education and support for maternal and child health.”
As outlined on the Every Mother Counts website, the five barriers to care that pregnant women face are:
• Access to emergency services
• Access to quality care
• The improvement of postpartum care
• Strengthening systems and policies of health care systems
• Providing of family planning education and reproductive health services
Every Mother Counts seeks to engage more of the world in the overcoming of these barriers, so that women and infants can receive the care they need.
As the Maternal Health Advocate for the Cooperative for Assistance and Relief Everywhere (CARE), supermodel Christy Turlington has been working to raise the public's consciousness about global prenatal care to a new level. Her documentary, “No Woman, No Cry” highlights the plight of four at-risk pregnant women in different parts of the world, including a remote Maasai tribe in Tanzania, a slum of Bangladesh, a post-abortion care ward in Guatemala, and a prenatal clinic in the United States. This documentary is set to air on the OWNnetwork this Saturday at 9:30 Eastern Time. You can see a preview here:
Watch on Saturday night, and then spread the word yourself about this important issue. Follow Every Mother Counts on Facebook, Christy Turlington on Twitter, and read more about how you can take action and make a difference.
Do it for all women on this Mother's Day weekend, because every mother counts.
