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Christy Turlington Burns has established a diverse career as amodel, writer, entrepreneur, spokesperson, advocate and filmmaker.In 2005, she became an advocate for maternal health for both CAREand RED. In 2010, she debuted her documentary film, "No Woman, NoCry," about the global state of maternal health, at the TribecaFilm Festival in New York City. Along with the film debut, shelaunched Every Mother Counts, a campaign designed to educate andsupport maternal, newborn and child health. While in rural Tanzania filming my documentary, No Woman, NoCry, about mothers around the world, I met Lightness, afrightened, pregnant 16-year-old. Lightness never received reproductive health education, had becomepregnant, and then was abandoned by her baby's father as well asher own. As soon as it was visible that she was pregnant, she wasforced to quit school. Her mom waved us down alongside the road and we drove Lightness tothe local clinic. She was immediately referred to the closestregional hospital 35 kilometers away because she was past her duedate and, nurses felt, too small to deliver at the clinic, whichcouldn t handle more than a straightforward birth. But, like most women in the region, Lightness had no way to getthere. When we checked in on her the next day and saw that shecouldn t get to the hospital, we arranged for transport. Lightnessunderwent an emergency C-section. I thought of Lightness last week at the GBCHealth Conference in NewYork City, where non-profits and companies came together to talkabout maternal health and other health issues. Her story isrepresentative of so many girls around the world who face similarlife-threatening situations. We heard at the conference about how pregnancy is the number onecause of death in girls and women aged 15-19 in the developingworld simply because their bodies are not ready for parenthood.And girls under the age of 15 are five times as likely to die asyoung women while giving birth. Indeed, hundreds of thousands of girls and women continue to dieeach year from complications caused by pregnancy and childbirth.Ninety-nine percent of women who die during or after childbirthlive in the developing world. I became a global maternal health advocate when I became a momeight years ago. After delivering my first child I experienced acomplication that claims the lives of thousands of women who do nothave access to the care I received that day. Once I learned aboutthe global statistics related to maternal deaths, I felt compelledto use my voice and resources to do all I could to prevent thesesenseless deaths. We know what many of the solutions are. They include access tohealth care, inexpensive drugs that stop post-partum hemorrhaging,a scale-up of community health workers, and reproductive health sothat pregnancies can be spaced. Education is key. As maternalhealth and education advocate Sarah Brown said at the conference, The very simple answer for teen-aged girls, to help reduce theirvulnerability, is to have them at school. Another panelist, Naveen Rao, who leads an initiative called Merckfor Mothers that aims to reduce maternal deaths, put it starkly:"We know what is killing them. We know why they die and we standaround watching them. It's a question of saying enough is enough.We need to decide whether mothers are worth saving." By not investing in ways to prevent maternal deaths, the economicand social cost of maternal and newborn mortality is $15 billionper year in lost productivity. It seems clear to me that we cannotafford to not invest. A number of companies have become asignificant force for transformation in this arena. The privatesector can and should be a major factor in driving change.Collectively, we can make this a priority once and for all. I returned to Tanzania last year and visited Lightness and herfamily. Lightness is completing her studies, her father hasreturned to the family, and her daughter, Vanessa, is thriving andloved by all. But I often wonder what would have happened if wehadn't found her on the side of the road that day. dispatches/globalpost-blogs/global-pulse/maternal-health-saving-girls-senseless-deaths. I am an expert from steelseamlesspipe.com, while we provides the quality product, such as Stainless Steel Coil Tubing , Stainless Steel Seamless Tube Manufacturer, Duplex Stainless Steel Pipes,and more.
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