Every Mother Counts needs your support! Mozilla Firefox is giving away $50,000 to the fundraiser that raises the most money, $30,000 to the one that wins the second most money, and $20,000 to the one that receives the third most money. Check out the leaderboard here and donate to help Every Mother Counts win the challenge for moms!

Every Mother Counts will match the first $10,000 raised. In addition, fifteen lucky contributors will win one of the following prizes:

◦                Starbucks EMC CD

◦                “No Woman No Cry” DVD

◦                Oiselle EMC t-shirt  

◦                ErgoBaby EMC bag

While for many women pregnancy is an exciting and joyful experience, for others it can be a death sentence. Every two minutes, a woman loses her life due to complications during pregnancy or childbirth – 90% of these deaths are preventable.  

Every Mother Counts is an advocacy and mobilization campaign working to increase education and support for maternal mortality reduction globally. EMC seeks to educate new audiences on the challenges and the solutions while encouraging them to take action to improve the lives of girls and women worldwide.

Many women in countries like Uganda give birth at home without a skilled health worker. The distance to a health clinic or hospital may be too great, the cost too high. Providers may lack the basic supplies needed to ensure a safe delivery. 

Our team recently traveled to Uganda to visit a project supported by Every Mother Counts being implemented by Baylor College of Medicine Children's Foundation Uganda, and projects being supported as part of the Saving Mothers, Giving Life partnership, for which EMC serves as a founding partner.

The Baylor Uganda project provides transportation vouchers at a reduced cost to cover a woman’s travel to a health clinic or hospital, and thus promote the safe delivery of her baby. She is also given a mama kit when she arrives at the clinic to deliver.

A "mama kit" is a small kit that includes basic essential supplies (like gloves, soap, a sheet to deliver on) needed to help a woman delivery safely. In addition, the promise of the kits helps incentivize giving birth in a staffed facility – because they also includes a clean wrap for the newborn (many women don't have this and have to bring babies home in an old cloth or towel.)  Each mama kit costs about $22 USD, and includes:

-Soap

-Cotton and gauze

-Plastic sheet (for labor)

-Disposable gloves

-Surgical gloves

-Surgical blade

-Cord ligatures

-Tetracycline eye ointment

-Baby blanket and sheets

-Child health card

-Polythene bag to hold medical records

The Facts:

- 287,000 women die during pregnancy and childbirth around the world each year. 90% of these deaths are preventable.

- Uganda has one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the world at 440 deaths per 100,000 pregnancies.

EMC's goal is to raise $25,000 for mama kits in Uganda. With your donation, we can help hundreds of Ugandan women and help prevent maternal and infant death.  

Please click on the Donate button and also Create Your Own Fundraising Page to help us fundraise.

Thanks so much for supporting our efforts in the challenge! 

Love, 

Christy