Our Story
Since 2010, Every Mother Counts has worked to ensure that all people, everywhere, experience a safe, respectful, and equitable journey through pregnancy, childbirth, and the postpartum period. This is our birth story.
Every Mother Counts was founded by Christy Turlington Burns after she experienced a childbirth complication. After learning that hundreds of thousands of women die preventable deaths every year, Christy dedicated herself to advocating for change. Since then, we have invested tens of millions of dollars to advance solutions and policies to transform global maternal health and save mothers’ lives. Along the way, we have maintained an unwavering commitment to one thing: A world where every mother truly counts.
Major milestones in our history
Learn more about some of the key moments since the founding of Every Mother Counts.
2010
Every Mother Counts emerges from a film
Christy Turlington Burns makes the documentary film No Woman, No Cry, shining a spotlight on maternal health challenges and solutions around the world. The film premieres in 2010 to critical acclaim and leads Christy to found Every Mother Counts with the goal of making pregnancy and childbirth safe for every mother, everywhere.
On the Hill
We launch global maternal health advocacy efforts on Capitol Hill by supporting the Improvements in Global MOMs Act, a bill to help improve access to life-saving care for women and infants around the world.
2011
Team EMC begins running
We establish Team EMC, a running & fitness program, to raise funds and awareness about the global crisis. With a team of 10 runners, Team EMC runs in the New York City Marathon for the first time.
Mother’s Day celebration
We hold the first MPower luncheon. MPower has become our annual Mother’s Day celebration and opportunity to gather our community to raise awareness about maternal health.
First learning tour
We host the first learning tour in our history in Bangladesh. On this trip, we screened No Woman, No Cry.
2012
Headquarters in Washington, D.C.
After gaining official nonprofit status, we open our first headquarters located in Washington, D.C.
Global grantmaking begins
Our grantmaking program launches with the first grants issued in Haiti, Indonesia, and Uganda.
Saving Mothers, Giving Life
We help launch Saving Mothers, Giving Life, a public-private partnership consisting of public, private, and nonprofit global health organizations. The program succeeded in reducing maternal mortality in Uganda and Zambia over a 5-year period.
2013
Making of a Midwife
We debut our first film series, Making of a Midwife, tracking the 2013 class of Midwives for Haiti students, filmed by Belony Jean-Piere, a Haitian graduate from the Ciné Institute.
U.S. grantmaking begins
As the U.S. maternal mortality rate continues to climb, we make our first U.S. grant to Commonsense Childbirth in Florida to support founder and CEO Jennie Joseph, who was featured in No Woman, No Cry.
2014
Maternal health campaigns
Amid the growing maternal health crisis, we introduce two campaigns to raise awareness: #Every2Minutes and #EveryMileEveryMother.
2015
Emergency grants fund created
Following a devastating earthquake in Nepal, we establish an emergency grants fund to respond to humanitarian crises and natural disasters.
First learning tour to Tanzania
We take our first learning tour to Tanzania and participants race in the Kilimanjaro Marathon. We have continued to visit Tanzania approximately every two years since this first visit.
Giving Birth in America
We launch a new film series, Giving Birth in America. This series explores maternal health challenges and solutions at the state-level. The first three films in the series focus on Florida, Montana, and New York.
Grassroots advocacy campaign
We launch a nationwide grassroots advocacy campaign with Jennie Joseph calling on insurance companies and state Medicaid programs to fully reimburse for midwifery and doula care in all 50 states.
2016
Orange Rose Mother’s Day Campaign
We launch the Orange Rose Mother’s Day Campaign to introduce the Orange Rose as a symbol for maternal health and a powerful reminder that safer motherhood is possible with improved access to essential maternity care. Following this campaign, we have given out the Orange Rose Award annually to a maternal health advocate during our MPower luncheon.
Over 500,000 lives impacted
With over $10.7 million invested in public education and grantee partners in Haiti, Guatemala, Uganda, Tanzania, Bangladesh, India, and the U.S., our efforts impact over 500,00 lives.
First learning tour to Guatemala
We take our first learning tour to Guatemala where we support grantee partners who are focused on the training of traditional midwives.
2017
Con Madre
We create the film Con Madre which follows midwifery students from Asociación Corazón del Agua in Guatemala City and their traditional midwife mentors who are working together to provide culturally appropriate care to Indigenous women.
Giving Birth in America: Louisiana
We release the fourth installment of the Giving Birth in America series, highlighting how climate change intersects with maternal health challenges in Louisiana.
Advocacy platform grows
We expand our commitment to advancing systems change through a new online advocacy platform to mobilize communities to take action. Christy supports these efforts as a speaker at the March for Moms in Washington, D.C.
2018
Giving Birth in America: California
We launch the fifth installment of the Giving Birth in America series, highlighting the maternal health challenges faced by migrant laborers in California.
Maximizing Midwifery
In collaboration with Choices in Childbirth, we publish “Maximizing Midwifery to Advance High-Value Maternity Care in New York”.
2019
Giving Birth in America: New Mexico
We release the sixth installment of the Giving Birth in America series, focusing on New Mexico.
Grantmaking evolves
Our grantmaking reaches the milestone of 50% of support dedicated to U.S.-based groups.
Endomononi
We create the film Endomononi, telling the story of two traditional midwives who provide maternity care in a predominately Maasai community in rural Tanzania.
Advancing Birth Justice
In partnership with Ancient Song Doula Services and Village Birth International, we publish Advancing Birth Justice: Community-Based Doula Models as a Standard of Care for Ending Racial Disparities. The report makes the case for expanding Medicaid coverage to include community-based doula support.
Giving Voice to Mothers
We collaborate with thought leaders, practitioners, and community partners on the groundbreaking Giving Voice to Mothers study, the largest study to examine mistreatment during pregnancy and childbirth in the U.S.
2020
First learning tour to India
We take our first learning tour to India to visit grantee partner Nazdeek.
JustBirth Space
At the height of the pandemic, we launch JustBirth Space, a free, virtual doula support service, in partnership with Village Birth International and Ancient Song Doula Services.
Delivering Hope
We release Delivering Hope: Maternal Health Heroes, a campaign that features the perspectives of midwives, community leaders, lawyers, activists, and mothers in Guatemala, India, and Bangladesh.
Response to global pandemic and calls for racial justice
Amid the pandemic, we partner with reproductive and birth justice leaders to issue a “National Call for Birth Justice” in the New York Times. We also launch several virtual campaigns and events—including Mamathon, Global Fitness Challenge, “Hang in there, Mama”, and a COVID-19 maternal health resource hub—and participate in the New York State COVID-19 Maternity Task Force.
Over 1 million lives impacted
We surpass the goal of impacting 1 million lives through our grantmaking work, reaching a total of 1,275,884 lives. Between 2019 and 2020, our grantmaking budget doubles, from $1M to almost $2M.
2021
Maternal Health Advocacy Toolkit
We create an interactive and easy-to-use Maternal Health Advocacy Toolkit to encourage action to advance maternal health.
2022
White House Maternal Health Call to Action
We participate in the first White House Maternal Health Call to Action, led by Vice President Kamala Harris. We commit to launching a fund that will seed, incubate, and accelerate approaches with the potential to transform maternity care and advance birth justice for all.
Arrival Stories
Christy Turlington Burns and Amy Schumer publish Arrival Stories: Women Share Their Experiences of Becoming Mothers, a collection of birth stories.
Choices in Childbirth
We launch Choices in Childbirth, a free online series of educational and interactive tools to help pregnant people understand their care options. This resource was created in partnership with maternity care experts, community-based birth justice advocates, and CVS Health.
2023
First learning tour to Indonesia
We take our first learning tour to Indonesia to visit grantee partner Bumi Sehat in Bali.
Giving Birth in America: Arkansas
We release the seventh installment of the Giving Birth in America series, focusing on Arkansas, at a special screening in Little Rock, Arkansas.
Doula and Perinatal Community Health Worker in Medicaid Learning Series
In partnership with the Institute for Medicaid Innovation, we launch a national “Doula and Perinatal Community Health Worker in Medicaid Learning Series”, highlighting state-level successes, challenges, and lessons learned when designing and implementing a Medicaid benefit for community-based perinatal support.
“Listening to mothers to transform maternity care”
We publish the article, “Every Mother Counts: Listening to mothers to transform maternity care”, in the American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology’s Labor supplement.
Impact Scaler grants launched
We pilot a new “Impact Scaler” model of funding to grow and scale existing initiatives that have demonstrated significant improvements in maternal health.
Over 1.5 million lives impacted
We surpasse the goal of impacting 1.5 million lives through our grantmaking which extends to over 35 grantee partners in 11 countries.
2024
About Your Mother
We release a podcast series, “About Your Mother”, in partnership with Kelly Corrigan. The series features conversations with Jennifer Garner, Amy Schumer, Cindy Crawford, Bono, Spike Lee, Ed Burns, and Melinda Gates.
2025
Celebrating 15 years
We mark 15 years of working to make the maternal health journey before, during, and after childbirth safe, respectful, and equitable for all.