June, 2012

Christy Turlington Burns
June 8, 2012
Every Partner Counts: White Ribbon Alliance
I learned about the White Ribbon Alliance (WRA) through CARE in 2007. At that time, Sarah Brown had just been appointed Patron of the WRA. I recall meeting both Sarah (during her first visit to Washington, DC) and Theresa Shaver, President and Executive Director of WRA, that same year. I've worked closely with the White Ribbon Alliance team ever since, helping raise awareness and visibility for maternal health.
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Every Mother Counts Staff
June 8, 2012
Respectful Maternity Care
Safe motherhood is more than the prevention of death and disability. It is respect for every woman’s humanity, feelings, choices and preferences. However, too often, pregnant women seeking maternity care receive ill treatment that ranges from relatively subtle disrespect of their autonomy and dignity to outright abuse: physical assault, verbal insults, discrimination, abandonment, or detention in facilities for failure to pay.
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Every Mother Counts Staff
June 8, 2012
White Ribbon Alliance in Tanzania
Tanzania is suffering from a severe shortage of midwives. In Tanzania, there is one midwife for every forty women in labor. Meanwhile, the size of nursing and midwifery school classes is rapidly decreasing—midwifery schools which once trained nearly three hundred students each year, now have an average class size of twenty-five students. Low pay and poor working conditions have combined to make midwifery an unattractive profession.
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Christy Turlington Burns
June 7, 2012
Every Partner Counts: Planned Parenthood
While conducting the research for “No Woman, No Cry,” we met with every organization we were aware of with a focus on maternal health which of course led us to Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA). When we met we were struggling to identify a country in Latin America where we could highlight some of the barriers vulnerable women face that contribute to maternal deaths in the region. In our meeting we learned about Dr. Linda Valencia, the obstetrician who was profiled in the film.
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Every Mother Counts Staff
June 7, 2012
The Anniversary of Griswold v. Connecticut
Forty-seven years ago today, the U.S. Supreme Court made a landmark ruling in Griswold v. Connecticut, which legalized birth control for married couples in all 50 states, and is credited with paving the way for the nearly unanimous acceptance of contraception that now exists in this country.
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Molly Raskin
June 7, 2012
First-Hand Look into Liberian Maternal Health Clinics
Last month I had the opportunity to visit a maternity clinic in rural Liberia, West Africa while working on a documentary that I’m producing on trauma healing in a nation devastated by 14 years of civil war. But as I saw first-hand, mental health is often inextricably linked with pregnancy in post-war countries like Liberia. And the task of improving maternal health care in the wake of a prolonged, bloody conflict is fraught with challenges.
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Every Mother Counts Staff
June 5, 2012
What Does Beyoncé’s Recent Birth Tell Us About How Much We Value Mothers?
As we look at the prominent and adoring coverage of celebrity moms and babies – such as the media excitement that surrounded the birth of Beyoncé’s daughter Blue Ivy– how can we doubt that motherhood, and the health and welfare of all mothers, is a cornerstone of our culture? The International Museum of Women’s new online exhibition, MAMA: Motherhood Around the Globe, suggests a far more complex and confusing picture. Both the global statistics and our exhibition tell a story that is very different to the glowing and positive picture that surrounds each new celebrity birth.
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Christy Turlington Burns
June 5, 2012
Every Partner Counts: Minted
I met Mariam Naficy, CEO of Minted at a conference last fall. A few months later she followed up offering to find a way to share our mission with the Minted community and in the end she decided to tie Every Mother Counts to the sales of a new product launch. I really enjoyed my job as one of the guest curators for Minted’s new collection of wall art.
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Erin Thornton
June 4, 2012
Every Partner Counts: International Museum of Women
Every Mother Counts has joined forces with the International Museum of Women to create a pledge that calls for the reduction of needless maternal deaths as part of the MAMA: Motherhood Around the Globe exhibition. The signed pledge will be delivered to various governments and policy makers, culminating with a special presentation around the UN General Assembly in September 2012. Your voice will be heard! Help meet our goal of 10,000 signatures and sign today.
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Christy Turlington Burns
June 3, 2012
Every Partner Counts: 1Love.org
The Marley family generously granted me use of “No Woman, No Cry” for the title of the documentary film I directed and produced in 2010 as well as permission for Martha Wainwright to cover the legendary Bob Marley tune for the end credits of the film. This version was also featured on our first Every Mother Counts Starbucks CD compilation in 2011. We got together that same year with Donna Mastropasqua, the executive director of 1Love.org, to find out how we could work together to further our missions and she told us about a company called Lyric Culture that makes stylish clothing with lyrics on the product. They offered to share the proceeds of a Lyric Culture T-shirt and scarf with Every Mother Counts. Together we agreed that the lyrics to “Get Up, Stand Up” were the perfect call to action for maternal health and we started promoting them in May around Mother's Day. The lyrics are printed on the inside of the t-shirts and were handwritten by both Cedella Marley and Christy. But this Lyric Culture project grew into much more. Cedella Marley eventually went into the studio to record the song and it is featured on Every Mother Counts 2012 Starbucks CD.
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