International Day for Maternal Health and Rights

Working to recognize April 11th as International Day for Maternal Health and Rights to raise awareness about global maternal health issues. 
We’re joining in the call to recognize April 11th as International Day for Maternal Health and Rights to raise awareness that every mother should have the right to access respectful, skilled, comprehensive and culturally appropriate maternal and reproductive healthcare. Currently, 800 girls and women die every day bringing life into the world, but up to 98% of those deaths could be prevented if more people were aware of the challenges women face.

What are we doing to improve maternal health worldwide?

Every Mother Counts addresses three critical barriers that women face when trying to access maternal healthcare: lack of transportation, education, and supplies.

• Transportation: We know that mothers face dramatic risks when they can’t reach maternal healthcare facilities due to distance and lack of transportation to skilled healthcare providers and facilities.
• Education: We know that when women lack education about how their bodies work. They may not recognize ways to improve their health or signs their health is at risk. Additionally, when healthcare workers lack education, experience or skills to manage routine and emergency maternal health situations, women suffer dire outcomes and healthcare providers are put under extreme stress.
• Supplies: Even when women can reach a healthcare facility that’s staffed with skilled, compassionate providers, that clinic or hospital may lack basic supplies including power, medications, and basic equipment needed to treat patients.

Every Mother Counts impacts maternal healthcare by activating a global community to join us in raising awareness about this global crisis and by raising funds that support programs around the world that break down barriers to care.

As part of our commitment to improving maternal health worldwide, 100% of all donations go directly to the programs we support that link mothers to providers of essential care.

Together, we can make pregnancy and childbirth safe for every mother.