June, 2011

Every Mother Counts Staff
June 29, 2011
Report Finds Variations In Approach to Women and Girls Across Global Health Initiative Countries
A new report from the Kaiser Family Foundation assesses how countries are responding to a U.S. Global Health Initiative (GHI) principle that addresses women, girls and gender equality. The report, available at http://www.kff.org/globalhealth/8206.cfm, examines county strategies for seven of the eight “GHI Plus” nations - Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Guatemala, Kenya, Mali, Malawi, and Nepal. (The eighth, Rwanda, has not yet completed its strategy.) Each country strategy was developed by interagency U.S. government teams in consultation with host country representatives.
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Christy Turlington Burns
June 24, 2011
Back to Bangladesh: Day 5
On our final day in Bangladesh we set out to visit a Grameen Village Bank north of Dhaka city in Dhaladia, Rajendrupur. Grameen Bank was created by Bangladesh's legendary Nobel Peace Laureate, Professor Mohamed Yunnus in 1976 who set out to become, as the title of the book about his life's work refers to him, "Banker to the Poor." While he did not invent the concept of micro lending, he is responsible for elevating its level substantially and providing poor women the opportunity to lift themselves from poverty. Why women, specifically? Well, they are more likely to spend their earnings responsibly and just so happen to have a 98% repayment rate.
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Christy Turlington Burns
June 23, 2011
Back to Bangladesh: Day 4
We got up early (again) to brave the Dhaka traffic - since there’s no apparent way to beat it - and headed southwest out of the city to Matlab for a day with ICDDR,B. It's a mouthful of an acronym but an incredible organization that conducts invaluable research, as well as service delivery and advocacy to implement interventions proven here at a national scale and also in other poor countries suffering similar challenges.
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Christy Turlington Burns
June 22, 2011
Back to Bangladesh: Day 3
We started our day at Dhaka Medical College’s teaching hospital where we learned more about one of the most common pregnancy-related morbidities (or disabilities) that poor women endure in childbirth; obstetric fistula. An obstetric fistula is when a woman suffers an obstructed labor, ultimately tearing a hole in her birth canal. Fistulas lead to incontinence of urine, feces and often cause infertility. Equally as devastating is that most women with fistulas are ostracized by their families and communities. The good news is that there is a surgical procedure to treat fistula and 90% of fistula cases can be repaired. Yet still, many women who suffer are not aware that this surgery may be available to them and as a result they can endure lifelong emotional trauma. Obstetric fistula is a condition that is simply hard to ignore once you understand its implications.
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Christy Turlington Burns
June 21, 2011
Back to Bangladesh: Day 2
We got up early to beat the infamous Dhaka traffic and headed Northeast to Narshingdhi to visit a few CARE projects that focus on educating and involving the families of pregnant women as well as the community to prevent maternal deaths in this region. Since one of the delays in women accessing emergency care in time is her own family in too many cases, this program includes the entire household. A community health worker meets with the family to educate everyone about how to care for the pregnant mother, informing them about her nutrition needs, signs of complications, the need to save some money in the event of an emergency, and the importance of group participation in caring for the mother throughout her pregnancy. The family structure in Bangladesh is somewhat unique in that when a woman marries she leaves her parents' home to live with her in-laws. For example, in the family we visited, the pregnant woman, Mahmuda, was joined by her husband, her one year-old Khadija, her mother in law, sister in law, and the sister of her mother in law. If all of these family members are aware of the danger signs in labor, they can ensure that she gets to a health facility equipped to receive and care for her.
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Christy Turlington Burns
June 20, 2011
Back to Bangladesh: Day 1
Two and a half years ago, I traveled to Bangladesh to film for my documentary, NO WOMAN, NO CRY. A year after the film's completion and world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2010, I have finally returned. This was the first country we visited while filming but the last to which we have brought it back. Bangladesh is also the furthest distance from New York, where I happen to live. To give you a sense of just how far away it is, I joined Erin Thornton, the Executive Director of Every Mother Counts, and Heather Armstrong, our first EMC delegation guest, at JFK Thursday evening on June 16th, and it was not until 4am Saturday, June 18 that we arrived in Dhaka. Julie Smolyansky, the CEO of Lifeway Foods, joined us the following morning from Chicago.
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Every Mother Counts Staff
June 16, 2011
This Father's Day Support the LifeWrap Program
Support the LifeWrap Program in honor of a father to help support families around the globe. Donate by Friday June 17th and a beautiful Ecard will be sent to the honoree on your behalf. Every year hundreds of thousands of women die from pregnancy and childbirth related complications. Almost all of these deaths occur in developing countries and most are preventable. The leading cause of death is obstetric hemorrhage; women bleed to death before they get the care they need. The LifeWrap Program utilizes first-aid devices that can save these women’s lives.
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Every Mother Counts Staff
June 6, 2011
Model, Mom & Moviemaker
Raising kids can certainly be a struggle—but birthing them may truly be the biggest struggle of all. Worldwide, one woman dies every 90 seconds from pregnancy and childbirth complications; 90% of those deaths are preventable. And perhaps shockingly, women in the U.S. are far from immune to this epidemic (we rank 50th worldwide for maternal mortality according to the latest UN report), despite our skyrocketing spending on healthcare. To bring attention to this crisis in women’s health, Christy Turlington Burns, mother of two, activist, women’s health advocate, and fashion icon, has produced and directed her first film, the incredibly moving documentary “No Woman, No Cry” (which follows pregnant women in Tanzania, Bangladesh, Guatemala and the U.S.) and created Every Mother Counts, a five-year outreach campaign dedicated to improving maternal health and reducing maternal mortality around the world.
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Christy Turlington Burns
June 1, 2011
Christy Turlington Burns: I'm Committed to My Work, but Torn About Leaving My Kids
I am often asked how motherhood changed me. I think the best thing about being a woman is our unlimited capacity to give and to love. This became clear the moment I became a mom. It’s an extraordinary gift that we women share and it is this universal capacity to mother (literally and figuratively) that connects us with our sisters around the world. Now that I'm aware of the barriers so many of us face in accessing quality maternity care, it's difficult to accept that not every woman has access to critical care when she may need it most, or support to be the best mom she can be. Without realizing this fundamental human right, a woman cannot live her optimal life nor will her children have their best chance at life.
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