four global organizations that save mothers' lives

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Jul 02 5:00 PM posted by author Friends of Ricki

Five years ago, Jennifer James saw a huge need within the mom blogger community and launched Mom Bloggers Club, a social network that gives the online mothers a place to talk about trends and support each other's blogging endeavors. But it was what she learned from those 18,000 moms and a trip to Kenya that confirmed Jennifer's need to do more. "Kenya changed the way I thought about what I can do in the world and I realized a lot of moms were in the same place I was," Jennifer shared. There was a growing need within the mom blogger community to do social good, whether it was around the world or in their own neighborhood. Enter Mom Bloggers for Social Good, a global coalition of 900 mom bloggers who currently span seventeen countries, spreading the news about the amazing work non-profit organizations are doing around the world. In a new series, Jennifer will share her experiences and the impact being made by her community of over 900 moms.

Friend of Ricki Jennifer James: More than likely you are not aware that every day, over 800 women around the world, especially in developing countries, lose their lives while giving birth. Most people don’t. That is over 33 women per hour. Most of these women die giving birth because of the lack of access to health services to deliver their babies. Without access to health workers, transportation to hospitals and clinics and money to pay for a hospital delivery countless women are faced with a perilous labor and delivery situation that means the difference between life and death for them.  Over 290,000 women a year don’t survive to care for their babies; that is if their babies survive.

There are organizations and NGOS (non-government organizations) around the world that are dedicated to saving women’s lives during childbirth believing that no mother should die giving birth. Reducing the rate of global maternal health is not easy, but year by year the drastically high rates of women who die during delivery or immediately thereafter are going down. Still there is much work to be done.

Here are four organizations that are dedicated to reducing maternal mortality and how you can help them save women’s lives.

Maternity Worldwide works in partnership with local communities to increase access to high quality maternal health care. Our current programs are mainly in Sub-Saharan Africa where need is the greatest. Here the lifetime risk of dying in pregnancy or childbirth is I in 39 compared with 1 in 3800 in developed countries like the UK and US

How Can You Help? The best way to help save women’s lives through Maternity Worldwide is through donations. Maternity Worldwide has estimated that all it takes is $24 to save a mother. You can donate directly to Maternity World Wide by clicking HERE.

White Ribbon Alliance for Safe Motherhood is an international coalition of individuals and organizations formed to promote increased public awareness of the need to make pregnancy and childbirth safe for all women and newborns - in developing as well as developed countries. Members of the Alliance take action in their own countries to make this issue a priority for their government and other international organizations.

How Can You Help? Become a member of the White Ribbon Alliance for Safe Motherhood. Each month they will send you an email with new actions you can take to help save mothers’ lives. Also, be sure to check out White Ribbon for Safe Motherhood’s Respectful Maternity Charter and share it with your friends and followers.

Shanti Uganda improves infant and maternal health, provides safe women-centered care and supports the well-being of birthing mothers and women living with HIV/AIDS in Uganda.

How Can You Help? There are several ways you can help save mothers through Shanti Uganda. If you are Vancouver based you can volunteer at Shanti Uganda’s headquarters. You can also volunteer with Shanti Uganda in Uganda. Check out their new volunteer opportunities in Africa. Additionally you can provide a gift of action where you can provide health care to expectant mothers and train a midwife.

PATH’s Sure Start program aims to reduce maternal mortality in India. Each year 78,000 women die in childbirth in India and one million babies die before two months. Those numbers are devastatingly high. To combat this high mortality rate PATH implemented the Sure Start program in Uttar Pradesh and Mahrashtra, Indian’s two most populous states, seven years ago.

How Can You Help? You can help save mothers’ lives in India through PATH in several ways. You can spread the word about the program, engage with the Sure Start community, and/or donate funds to help pay for expectant mothers’ health services and maternity care.

Even though women who are at high risk of dying during childbirth are a world away there are still ways you can help keep a woman alive even from the comfort of your own home. Or, you can opt to volunteer in developing countries for a more hands-on approach. Whatever you decide your help will keep a mother alive to cherish her life and the life of her little one.

How do you make a difference in your community? Share your story in the comments.

Jennifer James is an early pioneer of the mom blogging movement and founder of Mom Bloggers for Social Good, a global coalition of mom bloggers who use social media and blogging to advance information to their networks about pressing global issues. You can follow Mom Bloggers for Social Good on Twitter and Facebook.