A Fireside Chat with Christy Turlington Burns | Salesforce

Here in Haiti, many women have to walk an average of 5 miles just.

To receive any kind of maternal health care.

During my last trip here, we were.

Bouncing along the road and I thought, hey, why don't we run this? Why don't we run or walk this? Let's see what this really feels like.

At Every mother counts. We run as a way of educating.

The public about how distance is a.

Barrier for women to access quality maternity care.

Hey, Mario, how are you? Any babies?

60% of women here give birth at home without a skilled provider by their side. And one in 83 women die in childbirth. That's a staggering number. Every time I hear these statistics, I realize how lucky I was when I gave birth to my daughter. After giving birth, I started to hemorrhage. Without the skilled care of my midwife and nurses, I could have died. I had no idea that women still die in childbirth. Once I knew I had to do something about it. Just imagine you're about to give birth and you have no ride to the hospital. So you have to walk 5, 10, even 20 miles to reach care. Then when you finally arrive, you find there's no electricity, no doctor, no midwife, no nurse. More than 300,000 women die in childbirth every year. That's one woman every two minutes. And almost all of them, 98%, are preventable. For these mothers, we can be a light in the darkness.

Previously, when a woman comes to deliver.

In the labor ward, what we're using was this light. But today we have this light.

We partner with grassroots organizations that are providing their communities with critical support and care. We've been able to provide a ride to clinics to tens of thousands of moms. And we're ensuring a mother has someone by her side when she needs it most. We've trained hundreds of new midwives in Guatemala, Haiti, Syria and Bangladesh. But access to quality maternal health care is not only a problem in the developing world. Many American women are struggling to find the support they need throughout their pregnancies. Two women die every day giving birth in the United States. So we're giving grants to community based programs in the US that are providing prenatal care, childbirth education, and doula services for low income women.

Women are coming to us because they can't find anywhere else to go. They're stuck in this kind of limbo where they don't know who can provide this care for them. We don't turn anyone away.

With your help, we can do so much more together. Our community has run millions of miles to raise awareness and funds to support this critical care. Sharing your stories and those of our grantees is helping to educate and engage the public. We're investing in providers of life saving care that are making childbirth safer. We're building a movement that's impacting millions.

Of lives.

One mother at a time. When I come back to Haiti and I see the impact we have made here, I think that anything is possible. So join us. Together we can make pregnancy and childbirth safer for every mother everywhere.

Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome assistant managing.

Editor Forbes Kerry Dolan.

Well, good morning everyone.

Thanks for being here at Forbes. We have been spending quite a bit of time over the past five years increasing our coverage of philanthropy. We've been doing a summit in New York with some of the richest people in the country and around the world to get them to improve their philanthropy and talk about issues that are important to them. And as part of that extension of that, Forbes Today is doing a couple of panels on the philanthropy topic and I am the lucky person who gets to talk for the next while with Christy Turlington. So you got a little sense of what we're going to talk about. I'm going to have Christy come out right now and we can hear more about what she's been up to with Every Mother Counts.

Christy. Good morning everyone.

So we got a sense from that great video, really quite an impressive video there about the challenges that you're working with as your organization, Every Mother Counts. But talk a little bit about you mentioned briefly in the video your own childbirth experience and what took you from having your own issues to deciding to start a non profit.

Well, yes, in the film you can see me and my daughter who's now almost 13 years old. So it's been quite a long journey so far. But yes, the day that she was born is the day that I became a global maternal health advocate. And that's because I experienced a complication in the period of time after she was born. It was an experience that I wasn't prepared for. After a really great pregnancy and delivery and childbirth options, the unexpected happened. And it really was really in the weeks after her birth that I came across the staggering global estimates at the time, which were that half a million plus girls and women were dying every year from pregnancy and childbirth related complications. And that information just really shocked me. And because of my experience, I think I just felt like I had to learn more and I had to understand why women were still dying. And so over a period of time, it took me a little while to figure out how I was going to make an Impact. But it became clear over the next year or so that I wanted to do as much as I could. And so I went back to school to work on a master's in public health at Columbia University. And I started production on my first documentary film, which was called no Woman, no Cry, where we traveled around the world examining challenges and also what the possibilities were. What could we do? It turns out that the numbers have been coming down. They're at 300,000 currently.

And how much were they? Much higher than that.

They were a half a million. And so they've come and had not moved in 20 years. So in the last 10 years or so, those numbers have come down. And I think in part, it's because the world is counting girls and women in a different way than they had previously. There's more tension to this issue. Maternal health was on the global agenda in 2010 when my film came out. And that extra attention and the political will at sort of, you know, policy level, policymaker levels, has increased the awareness and the visibility for this issue. And then I would like to say that the film, as well as the work that we're doing at Every Mother Counts, along with other partners, has really helped to drive momentum and continue to educate the public about what can be done, because, in fact, 98% of these deaths are present preventable. And that's the part, I think that is most inspiring. You know, this is not an issue where we're waiting for a cure for a disease. We know how to save the lives of women.

It's just a matter of getting the trained midwives and getting the resources. Exactly.

And getting women to care. Access is really the biggest issue.

One of the things that I was surprised to read about on your website was this is not just a problem in Uganda and in some poor countries around the world, but even in parts of the United States. Can you talk a little bit about what's going on in the U.S. yes.

So as I was learning about the global statistics, I learned that the US at that time was ranked 40th in the world for safe motherhood. Today, we're actually ranked 60th. So we've fallen back. We've gone backwards. In the United States, we're one of 13 countries that has a rising maternal mortality rate. And there's been a tremendous amount of coverage in the last few weeks. Actually, about that, it's something that is more shocking. In fact. In fact, when I've shown my film all over the world, people are most surprised by the US Statistics, because we all know that we spend more per capita on health care than any other industrialized country. And so that's a real shocker. The causes of death are the same. Postpartum hemorrhage, infection, hypertension. However, here in the US we have this rise of chronic health issues, right? Diabetes is on the rise, obesity is on the rise, hypertensive disorders are on the rise. And so that is certainly contributing as well as over medicalization of maternity care in the US There are more C sections, there are more that are not necessary and that is contributing to this rise in maternal mortality as well. So it's almost like extreme situation, too much, too much, too soon.

So it's not in the US it's not as much that women can't get to the hospital to have the baby.

Well, some. I mean, that's still a problem here in many parts of this country. Many parts of this country, women are living in rural parts. We've done a film series called Giving Birth in America. And so far there are three films, short films, one looking at maternal health in Florida, one looking at it in New York, and one looking at it in Montana. And a state like Montana, very rural state, where there are not so many obstetricians, where women might live far away from a health facility that can manage an emergency obstetric scenario. And so you'll find it anywhere here. And then, you know, access is, it's interesting, right? Women of color in this country don't have the access of Caucasian women. So across the country, African American women are four times more likely to die in childbirth than a Caucasian woman. Latina women are twice as likely to die, not to have the complication, but to die from the complication. And you have to look closely at that and what role race plays in women's access to care.

So just to back up a little bit, you started out by going and making, going around the world and making this documentary film. So at what point did you decide, okay, okay, I'm going to go from, first of all, you must have learned some amazing things when you did this documentary. And then at what point did you decide, okay, I'm not going to just do a film, I want to start a non profit? And what was there a particular moment? What made you decide, this is what I want to spend maybe the rest of your life doing? I don't know.

Well, the film I thought at the time was like, ok, this will be my big contribution, right? I this is so needed to put faces behind the statistics that were being discussed sort of at this global level in Terms of maternal health and development. And by the time I finished it, because the film took about two years to make, I thought, okay, well that's not enough. Even if I helped educate people and people sort of wake up that this is an issue and that there's something that can be done about it, then the next question that's asked is, well, what can we do? So really the organization was conceived from the experience of really showing the film and having that question being asked and knowing that people really felt as motivated as I did to do something about it. And so at first we were sort of pointing the direction people in the direction of, okay, this organization's doing this and this organization's doing that. And that felt very unsatisfying, I think, not only for us as a campaign, but for the people that were asking and wanted to get their hands dirty. And so Every Mother Counts really was kind of created to be a platform to educate people further about the issue, but then to also invite participation. There's a lot that we can do. And so in order to do that, there have to be ways for people to plug in. So, you know, we've done supply drives and we've had different kinds of partnerships where people are able to purchase products that benefit mature maternal health programs. We have done running and different other physical fitness types of activities because I think people who are committed to their own health and understand the importance of improving your own health care, you are more likely to care about the health and well being of another person. And so we found that the running, and also that running really does help us communicate. That distance is such a big barrier. And it could be five miles, it could be 20 miles, but it also could be one mile. You know, we made this film, literally just finished it days ago, and we were just in Haiti two weeks ago, and you know, we ran along this five mile road from a paved road to a clinic. And yet when we did a home visit to this mother, it was probably 500 yards to go up further from that dirt road to her home. And honestly, that alone just the, the terrain rocky. And now that there's a hurricane in the area, you can just imagine add water and flooding to that area and you can see why a mother would not venture out by herself or with a small child. So those are, you know, it's distance, but it's, it's sort of, it's a mental distance.

Well, but also the conditions of the road, even in the film, I mean that some of that stuff was some pretty rocky terrain. Yeah, unpaved rocky terrain there. So talk about how you've decided to choose. So you're working in Haiti, and you're working in a number of other countries. How have you decided where to go? What's driven you to the various countries where every mother counts is working.

So in 2012 is when we decided to become a foundation. We got our 501c3 status, and at that point started to really think about what would a grant portfolio look like and what. Where would we invest? And to me, the three barriers that seemed the most obvious were transportation, education, and supplies. And so we started to just kind of hone our approach and our model around those interventions. And so, sort of really slowly, one country at a time, through either an invitation, through another kind of partnership in one part of the world, or by just having relationships in another place and having just the need be the driving sort of force. So the first grant that we gave was actually in Haiti, and I had visited there about a year after the earthquake with Paul Farmer, who, if you.

Guys don't know, Paul Farmer is from Partners in Health, and they've done a lot of great work in Haiti with improving medical care and starting hospitals and employing Haitians in Haiti.

Yes, yes.

Forbes has given him a lifetime award for his work.

Yeah, I mean, he's wonderful. And they have a sister sort of arm of the organization called. And they were building a new teaching hospital, because in the earthquake, the teaching hospital was destroyed, along with the class of midwives and nurses and young doctors. So we really had to sort of start with this, like, let's build up the healthcare workforce in Haiti. And so we partnered with Partners in Health in Haiti, as well as a very small grassroots organization called Midwives for Haiti. And that's the one that we've had the most excitement because the potential is so. It's just tremendous. We've educated four classes of midwives in the central plateau, and I just attended the most recent graduation, and to see that each of these midwives, once they have the skills and training, they will deliver up to 200 babies per year. And each of these students come from very remote parts of the country. And then after they graduate, they go back into these communities, and there's, you know, 80% of them are getting jobs right out of the program. We're working now with the Ministry of Health to try to make sure that this level of education is accepted and respected by the Ministry of Health, which is another challenge. But it's. It's. It's going in the right direction.

And what's that training, like how long does it take to train a midwife?

In Haiti it's one year, but they do clinical training in a government hospital that's very close to where the midwives study. And then there are volunteer obs and midwives that come from all over the country to sort of plug into that curriculum and that training. So it's a pretty, I mean, they have one level of nursing or some education already, so it's just an added sort of graduate degree level. But it's really the quality of their skills is by far much higher than an auxiliary nurse in the country. And then in Guatemala there's a three year program that is the first accredited midwifery program that's connected to the University of Guatemala City. And that's a tremendous opportunity. But again, different country, different needs and different processes.

And so you. So every mother counts is able to fund part or all of the training.

For these midwives, most of the training for these midwives, as well as making sure that the preceptors and teachers that are Haitian or Guatemalan are also being looked after and that they have what, you know. So we're sort of staffing those schools as well as birth centers and clinics as well. In Haiti there are mobile clinics that go out to these remote areas and the midwives, students as well as the graduates will go out to these areas and spend, you know, days to make sure that every woman is seen. You know, realize that like in some remote areas a woman, you know, will never know that she might not know she's pregnant even until she's six months pregnant.

And I think about how many times I went to the ob GYN when I had my two kids. You know, the run up that whole time of so many checks is so common here in the United States.

In fact, the World Health Organization recommends three prenatal visits. And for any American woman it's like, what, are you kidding?

Didn't I do like 20?

So one of the things that we do, we been doing in Uganda through a large partnership called Saving Mothers Giving Life has been transportation vouchers. So we have made it possible for women to be able to get rides, sometimes on motorcycles, sometimes on small three wheel ambulance taxis, and they will be able to have access to prenatal care, delivery care in a facility, as well as postpartum care, because the majority of maternal deaths actually do happen postpartum. So it's really important not only to send everybody to a hospital or a clinic that might be understaffed or might not have the space for the women to actually deliver, but to also make sure that they're being seen afterwards.

And does those postpartum deaths typically happen within 24 hours?

It depends. In this country, we're sort of still trying to figure out what's the right number. It could be anywhere from 30 days to a year. And it's in the United States. Very. So California might report it on it one way, New York reports on it a different way. So one of the things that we're hoping for is to have consistent reporting and even audits to understand really what's happening amongst the population.

Yeah, I imagine getting information is tough, not just in the US but elsewhere as well.

Yes, yes.

So you're in Haiti, you're in Guatemala.

Uganda, Tanzania, the U.S. india, Bangladesh. I think that's everything. And then we created an emergency fund grant last year after the earthquake in Nepal. And so we've been able to move more quickly after a natural disaster and work with partnerships. So we've been able to support One Heart worldwide as well as our partner, We Care Solar, whose founder is here today in instances like that. I mean, we're already talking about what we can do for Haiti because this hurricane just happened. And so there's a tremendous need in the south part of the country. And then Syria, you know, obviously Syria is going through so much right now. So we just recently did a training through a partner called Circle of Health International outside of Syria, training Syrian midwives in Turkey so that they could go back into the country and provide care. Yeah. So we want to be able to, you know, women and children are the ones most impacted by any kind of natural disaster. And so to be able to move quickly when events happen. Sadly, so many of the countries that have the greatest need are in vulnerable locations geographically in the world. And so to try to, again, through partnership and others that are already very committed and have more support on the ground that we can be able to come in and support them in those times.

So you briefly mentioned your partner, We Care Solar, and we were talking a little bit off stage about it, so. Which is fascinating. So tell us a little bit about We Care Solar and how they're helping your mission.

Yes.

So Dr. Laura Stachel, who I think is in the room. Yes, there she is in the front room. She is a wonderful. She's an obstetrician who was traveling a lot to Africa and kept bringing suitcases over with her. And finally she and her husband decided, like, let's create a solution. And so as the innovators that they are, they Created this beautiful solar suitcase that I have learned how to use and to train and have installed in Tanzania myself. But we came in and were able to give them grants to be able to create these suitcases and put them into clinics across many countries in Africa.

And the thing is, you know, here in the United States, we take electricity, you know, light for granted.

Right.

But in so many of these other countries, countries where you're working, there is no power. You're off the grid.

You're off the grid. Exactly. So when we were talking about those three barriers. So it would be one thing to train people to be able to address the complications that arise or to handle an emergency obstetric scenario. But then if the mother actually does get the ride to the clinic and then she gets there and there's no light or there's nobody staffing that place, then you're sort of, well, what's the point? So this we care solar suitcase is so exciting because truly, it's a game changer. You could see Seda, the nurse midwife in the film, just one example of how game changing it is. Before that, there are kerosene lanterns that can be used. There are cell phones that will be used to do episiotomies. To deliver. You have to have one person holding your mouth.

Oh, wow.

Yeah, yeah. I mean, you know, in low resource settings, you are creative, you do it right. You are very creative. But this is the beauty of, you know, the understanding of what's happening on the ground, understanding the challenges. I mean, Laura and her team have like, over time really perfected this solution and it really, it really is so exciting. And we recently, you know, were able to support them putting more suitcases through Tanzania. And we're hoping to continue that support next year.

So essentially providing, being able to provide light where their house is.

Each one is about $1,500. So. And then they, they last for a long time. They're very durable. They have solar panels that can be put onto tin roofed clinics or buildings or concrete, whatever you're working with. And the training is so well thought out and so clear that as I've trained, I trained someone how to use this, I've trained a whole community because people tend to hang around the clinic and it's activity, it's community.

So you get around. You visit a lot of the countries where you're doing work, right?

I do. I mean, I love to be in the field. I'll be going back to Tanzania in February and I just came back from Haiti last week. My children are getting A little older, so I'm sorry. Trying to bring them along sometimes, too. I was in Guatemala earlier this summer, and my daughter came along. We had about six or so tweens with us. And I think that's the sort of right age to be exposing them to these issues, but also the importance of sexual reproductive health care and access to services. And it was just wonderful to be able to see through her eyes how obvious and clear that was.

Well, I also think it's so great, too, to. You know, I think we're blessed in this country, particularly in cities like New York and San Francisco, with, you know, having everything we need. I remember the first time I went to, you know, a country where there. There were beggars everywhere. And it was a shock. Right. So as a teenager, to be able to go and learn about the rest of the world doesn't live the way we do.

Yes, yes. My mom was also here, actually, but my mom is from El Salvador. And so we grew up traveling frequently to that area of the world. And I think without being told, sort of, look at this and look at that. I mean, just to be able to look out the window and sort of absorb, and then more importantly, to be out on your feet, walking through communities, meeting people, connecting with other children of the same age or other mothers, that is incredibly impactful.

So you guys have been recognized, every mother counts for being very innovative as a nonprofit. And we saw some of the racing, the running that you have done. But talk about some of the other interesting. I read about Starbucks CDs at Starbucks. And I mean, what are the other sort of interesting ideas that you've come up with to try and spread the word? Raise money, Raise awareness?

Yeah, I mean, I don't think of us as so much as innovators, really. I mean, although we can play a supporting role with innovator partners, like we care, for example, but really the things that we've been doing are not being done for the first time. A lot of, I think organizations have found running and different kinds of activities like that, you know, helpful in raising awareness and fundamentals. I think the difference is that it's so specific and so relatable to our issue. I think we're taking a very human issue and making it seem that much more personal. It was great six years ago when the world started talking about maternal health and adding it to the global agenda and having it on the agenda at the G8. But this is one of those issues that, like, anyone can relate to, whether you've had a complication or Not, I think people who have been through the experience, experience of becoming a parent, have had access to quality care, have needed it for their child or for their partner. I think most of us can relate to how important and how life changing that can be. So I think to take a very human universal issue and then just to make it approachable and make it, you know, this is conversational. Anyone can add to this conversation has been our sort of, I think our point of difference for some of the other organizations working on this issue. And then through partnerships, I mean partners like Red, who I've known since they started, we sort of learn from watching them. And this idea of creating partnerships with products and companies that allow people to do what they already want to do, but then it contributes to something even bigger and more meaningful. So for every mother counts, we've taken a slightly different approach in that most of the companies we partner with are mom woman led companies. Right. That have policies, we aspire to partner with companies that have policies that are very parent friendly, mother friendly. Creating products that make mom and child's life easier, more connected. That's sort of our niche, I would say. We really, we're trying to educate at every level that we can. In addition to training people, it's about matter of like let's all do better to make sure that our moms are able to thrive in the role of motherhood when they become moms.

Are there any particular companies that you, I mean, are there big companies or small? You work with smaller companies?

Well, quickly growing companies. Minted is one of our partners, Stella and Dot is one of our partners.

Interesting.

And they have such a great model. In fact, we brought some Stella and Dot stylists actually with us to Haiti a couple weeks ago. Wazel is another athletic apparel line that we've been partnered with for about four years now. You know, it's been really fun to be able to point out like, you know, these are companies that are growing quickly mother led and some of them are international as well. And so they really understand or they actually produce products in some of the countries that have the highest rates of maternal mortality. So being able to make that connection and actually create jobs in some of these countries for women has also been a really interesting angle of what we're trying to do.

So what would you say are the biggest challenges you face? I mean, you talk those statistics, you know, mother dying every two minutes, that's pretty, pretty gripping, you know, to enable to lower that number. What do you feel like? You know, you talked about the barriers, transportation Supplies and stuff. But you know, tactically, like what's next, you know.

Well, I mean right now we've, with this new film series here in the US called Giving Birth in America. We're just sort of trying to put a light on certain states that have high maternal mortality but that have potential. So, you know, doula care we mentioned in the video is one of the best solutions, midwifery care. These are lower cost models of care if you can have more sort of team efforts amongst health care providers. So in my case with my complication, I had a doula at a midwife, but an obstetrician who backed them in a birth center, in a hospital. I think birth centers, freestanding birth centers as well as birth centers that are a part or connected to a hospital are a really important step. And I think more and more people are recognizing that there's a bigger demand from women themselves that they want that option. I think it's hard with birth. We don't know what is going to be. We can identify some people that will have a complication like eclampsia for example, but in cases like mine, perfectly healthy woman, and we didn't know until afterwards. So it's really critical that everyone have a plan for the unexpected and that wherever you deliver that you are close enough. A woman can die hemorrhaging within two hours. So if you live far away from a hospital, that's a problem. That's a problem.

Well, there's this interesting trend where I know more women have wanted to give birth at home with the midwife, which I guess it sounds like it might be okay to. You'd probably sanction that if you're close enough to medical care when you.

Yes. And that your provider again is linked to the next level of care. I think that's why I think the birth center model is such a great one, sort of the best of both worlds since very long time ago in this country. In Boston, for example, with Boston Women's Hospital, they had a laying in center which was next door to the hospital. And that was a typical place that women would go again who lived maybe far away or had complications but didn't want to be in the hospital because hospitals are obviously dangerous places to be for healthy people full of germs. And so it's interesting to see that that model that, that we've had here in this country for many, many years is being replicated in places like Tanzania.

And so the laying in center would.

Be before you gave birth, maternity, waiting, home. So it's four really before. I mean, it's effective for first time moms because obviously a woman in sub Saharan Africa who may have three or four other children at home and be supporting everyone, she can't really go and take two weeks to go, you know, leave the family, go live by the hospital in the event that something goes wrong. So, you know, it needs some work and some finessing. But the idea of it, I think is the right kind of idea. Right? If a woman has access to care and then, you know, it's clear that she may have a problem or a complication, maybe she's had many, many children or maybe she's had some kind of obstetric problem before, you want her to be closer because the likelihood of her needing emergency care is that much higher. And so there's something to this that I think is starting to, it's starting to be proven out there.

So you mentioned getting the approval of the Ministry of Health. I think it was in Tanzania, I can't remember which country mentioned. I'm curious about what that relationship is like with governments when you're working in foreign countries, because it seems to me like what you're doing is ideally what the government you're trying to work to improve conditions that really the government ought to be doing in many places. And so has been some headbutting anywhere or is it usually cooperative or tiptoeing around?

What's that again? We're coming in and usually working with implementing partners on the ground who have been working there for some time. And there's no program that we support that is not on the government's radar or on the Ministry of Health's radar. You know, you find that ministers of health can be really great allies. And then when administrations change, you know, not Guatemala, Guatemala actually also Guatemala and Haiti both right now have had a lot of turbulent political climates. Like they've postponed the elections three times in the last year. In Haiti, Guatemala had a, a president that was stepped out and they put an interim president in. Like with all that fluctuation and change, the ministries also change. So you can't wait for them to get their stuff sorted out. Right. Each member state of the United nations has a plan. And so to be familiar with their plan and to sort of try to plug into what is lacking, where are the gaps in those plans is kind of the approach we've taken. And yet we really look to our partners on the ground to let us know where best our investments could be used and allocated so that we're not having to negotiate those partnerships. And deals ourselves. And we're not working in places that have. We're not working in many places that are at war. We're really trying to find places where the potential is more accessible.

I would imagine that this. It's interesting the way you described what you're doing with bringing the women out of Syria because.

Yes. I mean, because health workers have been targets in Syria for the last few years. And so, you know, the need. People are still having babies, maybe more so than other times. And so you need to make sure that people are able to continue giving that care.

So if people in the room want to get involved some way in what you're doing besides donating, obviously you find fundraise from around the world. What do you say? What can you tell this crowd?

Well, if there's any runners out in the audience, I'm running the golden gate half on November 7th out here. And if you run, you have enough time to train up and join us. We'll also have a team at the Big Sur marathon in April and we have races across the country and actually outside of the country, too. I've run the race in Tanzania that I'll run again in February. But we've also run races in Haiti. We're looking to run a race in Guatemala. So that's a great way if you already do that. Charity Miles is an app that's free that you can put on your phone. And so any kind of exercise that you do, it will download. You can actually choose which organization to support, but will unlock funds to be designated to a variety of charities. And every mother counts as one of those. So you can walk, cycle, run. You could also sign a petition. We have a change.org campaign out right now that is in conjunction with our Giving Birth in America series asking for Medicaid reimbursement of doulas and midwives in all 50 states. There are only two states in the country that reimburse doulas. Is one of them California? Yes. Oh, wow. No, actually, no. Sorry. Midwives. Yes. No, it's Oregon and Louisiana.

Okay.

Louisiana. Wow.

That's a wonderful. Yeah. And we're about to start production on our next gift Giving Birth in America series in Louisiana, actually. Next.

So let's listen to a little bit more or have you talk a little bit more about giving birth in America. That's airing on.

We aired it on CNN actually earlier this year. And when the next one is complete, we'll hopefully air it there too. We had tremendous visibility.

You can also watch them on your website.

Yes. You can watch them on everymothercounts.org as well. And we do films pretty consistently since no Woman no Cry, we've continued to make short films, films about the impact of our grants in all of the countries where we're working. But this next series is the longest form film that we've done since no Women no Cry. So we'll be adding to that. We could tell 50 maternal health stories in this country. And so we'll continue to do it until we.

And if people want to watch no.

Woman no Cry, you can get it on itunes. I think there's a portion of it that's online on our website, but itunes carries it.

That's great. I might have cut you off on other things to do. So running is a great way to join.

You can join us. Okay, so the change.org we have a shop page that's on our website too. So for the different product partnerships that you could support maternal health programs through those. And then we're looking for skill sets too. We have a small team of only nine in New York, but every person that was on our team was a volunteer, with the exception of one or maybe two initially. And so we're always looking for help in different ways. And sometimes we're not even aware exactly what we need until it presents itself. But if this is an issue or you've had an experience that you feel connected to, we invite you to reach out and to try to figure out what makes sense with you.

So do you engage much with the folks at the United Nations? I mean, I would imagine this is. This is an issue that is under their purview.

It is. I mean, they have several initiatives from UNFPA focuses to every woman, every child. I just find that the beauty of being a small organization is that we're a lot more nimble than a large organization or group of organizations like the UN so we definitely. We follow the MDGs. The SDGs were interested in Millennium Development Goals, Sustainable Development Goals. You know, we're a part of those conversations and yet we're not held up by the bureaucracies of them.

Yeah, no, that with only nine people. I'm sure you're very nimble as an organization. Yeah. So if there were, if people want to leave, if there's statistics or things that you'd like the people in this room to kind of leave here with, you know, just sum up. We still got a few more questions, but just kind of hammer in, what would be the statistics you'd like people to kind of walk away with? From this.

I mean, I think if you could share with your friends and families that, you know, more than 300,000 women and girls die every year, every year from pregnancy and childbirth related complications. One woman every two minutes. And that 98% are preventable. Those are the three that I think would surprise people and also hopefully excite people about what is possible.

Yeah. What's this thing that you're most excited that you've accomplished so far?

I think that this issue is more known than it was previously. I think we've been a big part of how that has changed in the last five or six years. I think in a very short period of time, we've grown a community that's more than 200,000 people. And we've impacted more than 400,000 lives since 2012 with very little resources and a very tiny team. So there's so much more that we can do. And so just by sharing my story, sharing the stories of our grantees and the women that I meet on a regular basis in the U.S. u.S. And abroad, bringing home this universal experience, and yet the what ifs, the what if you don't have a ride? What if you don't have access to a provider? What if you're alone? What if you don't have electricity? What you know, the what ifs. I think that hopefully will change the way that you go about your daily lives. And that's the hope, right, that these stories stick with you and that you think about them and that you become a part of this community and that we can be the solution.

Do you feel like your time as being a model has helped you in terms of the work that you're doing now? Are there some skills that you feel carry over?

I mean, I think just my exposure to so much of the world from such a young age certainly has helped what we were talking about with just our children and that exposure. I had that as a child through my family, but then through my career as a very young person traveling by myself all over the world. I think that really, I think, has changed my sense of connection to other places in the world and other people, but also just the relativity of it all. Perspective. I think it's very difficult to get that kind of perspective when we don't leave our surroundings and our comfort zones. Other than that, I mean, just the importance of relationship and partnership. I think I learned that very early on in my career. You know, I still do have relationships with the companies that I worked for and with from the very beginning of my career. And that's not typical in my industry. And so I think the value of relationship. I've learned a lot about branding without really thinking about that consistency in messaging, you know, just consistency, consistency in everything. I think that just is what sets the difference between issues, products, companies in the world. Yeah, I would say that. I mean a lot of my industry too creates their products outside of this country. And I think making sure that the people who are making the things that we rely on and that we use are big, being created with the health and well being of the people who are creating it in mind. So I think that awareness is also really important for any of us. And then policies, really the policies of the companies that I align myself with, I'm sure I could do better. But it's important to know how do people treat the women in their companies? What is the ratio of female leadership versus male leadership? What's your maternal leave policy or parental leave policy? Do you have one? You know, those are really important things. And so you realize as any of us as individuals have the power of changing the way people think by asking those questions. So, yeah, I would say that my industry is still somewhat with me and they've also been incredibly, A lot of those companies have been incredibly supportive of the work that we're doing at Every Mother counts too.

Well, I would imagine too that just the fact that you're a celebrity that helps to open doors for initial conversations with some organizations and some people. Right. You don't have to call up and say you've never heard of me, but I'd like to ask you, I'd like to ask you a favor.

I suppose so. I mean, again, I wouldn't sort of call anybody that I didn't know. But yeah, I mean, it does make a difference probably that I can. I'm on a magazine cover. I don't think a lot of founders of nonprofits are on magazine covers. But on the other hand, there's just. At the end of the day, it's a matter of how committed and how knowledgeable are you about what you're talking about and does the issue touch other people? Because I think you can get your foot in the door if you're a known person or you have something that they might want to leverage. But at the end of the day, the lasting relationship and the support that's really needed on issues like this, that takes a lot more than just a recognizable face and name. And so, you know, my diving deeply into this issue by going back to school and by what was that like.

To go back to School.

Well, I only know going back to school as an adult. So I went back for my undergrad in my mid-20s at NYU, and then in my late 30s, I went back to school at Columbia, so. So I'm not done, I don't think, with school yet.

And so you had kids.

You had small children the second time? Yes. Yeah, don't do that. Don't have two small children and make a film for the first time and go back to school.

You were doing all of those at the same time. Wow. Yeah.

I know people that do much worse. Much more. Much worse. I always say my mom will ask me sometimes, like, what? You know, why are you doing this and why are you doing that? You know, the women that I meet, you know, almost every. Every woman that I meet in the countries where we work do so much more than anything that I do any single day that it's sort of shame on me if I don't do a lot of.

That's probably out of necessity.

Right. Working jobs and going water. I mean, there's the luxury to say, oh, you know, I don't feel like getting up today. Or, you know, there's just not that time and luxury. It's really, you know, every day is a new set of challenges. You survived childbirth and that, and it's like, can my children survive till they're five? My children survive till they're five? Can they survive till they're 12? You know, these are very real challenges that women face every day. Can I feed my children? Can I get them to school? Can I clothe them? Those are real. And so that's what I'm hoping to help those women.

Yeah, that's. No. We take a lot of things for granted in this country that we have. We're blessed with so many great medical outlets and all kinds of supplies and resources that most people in the other parts of the world don't have. Can you talk a little bit about that? Your degree at Columbia, did the degree in public health help you ground yourself.

Or help certainly play a role in certainly relationships? I mean, because of that education, I was to.

Able.

Able to access many of the first programs that I got to connect with in the countries that we featured in. No Women, no Crime, we filmed in Tanzania, Guatemala, Bangladesh, and here in the US And I'd say through many of my professors, who are also very much a part of creating the Millennium Development Goals and Sustainable Development Goals. And so to have that kind of access through my education was really helpful. And then once I was in those countries, you know, Just everything is relationship also in maternal health. So, you know, it's. It's a large global field, and yet in each country, it's a pretty small group of players and organizations. And so you find. And then they move from country to country. So you might meet a country director from Save the Children one place, and then you see them in the next country that you're in. So there's a lot of crossover. So, yeah, very, very helpful in terms of relationship and just gaining trust. I think, you know, very quickly you have to. As a filmmaker, that would take time to really build trust to be able to, you know, be invited into people's homes and to be invited into hospitals and clinics. That is not usually very welcome anywhere. But through these programs and through the relationships I was forging through school, we were able to establish that trust much, much more quickly.

So that was actually fairly beneficial then, very. To be making film at the.

And even still, really our model of working with grassroots partners on the ground. You know, I'm not arriving in Haiti and sort of knocking on doors. You know, I'm already kind of coming in working with very trusted people in a community that have already. They've already seen the benefits of that education on their communities. And so the trust and the sort of knowledge that that care and that you're being there supporting those initiatives to continue, there's already that understanding that they want you there. And so that obviously feels much better than kind of popping in and popping out. And so, yeah, we're in these countries for the long haul.

That's great. Well, it's been great to talk with you. Thank you so much for sharing all of the hard work that you've been doing, the somewhat grim statistics and parts of the. The world, but the fact that we're hopefully on a good curve going forward. And as you mentioned, if people want to get involved, there's lots of ways to get involved with Every Mother Counts. And to go to your website.

Yeah. Please, everymothercounts. Org.

Thank you, everyone, for coming. Thank you to Christy Carlington Burns.