Every Mother Counts, an advocacy and mobilization campaign founded by Christy Turlington Burns to increase education and support for the global reduction of maternal mortality, and CHI&Partners, an international advertising agency based in New York, have launched No Mothers Day, a groundbreaking social issue campaign designed to raise awareness about the hundreds of thousands of girls and women around the world who die each year from complications related to pregnancy or childbirth.
The cornerstone of the campaign is a social issue film that features moms encouraging other moms to join in solidarity by disappearing on May 13th, Mother’s Day. No phone calls. No emails. No social media. No gifts. This unified action is meant to demonstrate the hole that a woman leaves in the world when she dies in pregnancy and childbirth. In leading a movement to forego Mother’s Day this year, the two organizations hope to bring more attention to the global issue of maternal mortality so that more mothers are here to celebrate in years to come. The film was directed by filmmaker, Ed Burns.
“Being able to do good work for a good cause so you can truly make a difference is a fantastic opportunity,” said Victoria Davies, Managing Partner at CHI&Partners. “No Mothers Day is an idea that could only be championed by Christy and Every Mother Counts – and forces us to think about a world without mothers on the one day when people should be thinking about mothers the most”.
The film features mothers between the ages of 24-80 expressing the belief that together, “our silence will speak the loudest, for all mothers.” Some of the high profile mothers featured in the film include, Christy Turlington Burns, Jennifer Connelly, Kelly Rutherford, Ann Curry, Blythe Danner, Debra Messing, Dayle Haddon, Tonya Lewis-Lee and Heather Armstrong (Dooce).
“We hope this film becomes a pivotal moment in getting people to stop and think about maternal health on a much larger scale,” said Christy Turlington Burns, founder, Every Mother Counts. “Nearly 360,000 women die every year from largely preventable causes related to pregnancy and childbirth, and 90 percent of those deaths are preventable. Once people know the facts, they will want to do what they can and come to us to find ways to engage.”
Turlington Burns founded Every Mother Counts as a campaign to support her first documentary, No Woman, No Cry, about the global state of maternal health, and to increase awareness about the hundreds of thousands of girls and women who die each year from complications related to pregnancy or childbirth. The campaign was so well received and the demand for continued engagement so strong that EMC has evolved into an organization to help individuals, companies and organizations find their own voice on maternal health and join a growing community of advocates.
