Every Mother Counts was founded in 2010. As they celebrate their 10th anniversary, they also celebrate uplifting almost a million lives around the world through more focused, caring, deliberate, and available health care for mothers across the spectrum of pregnancy and childbirth. 

Their work is multifaceted; one part awareness, several parts advocacy, even more parts just plain resources for areas in the world where good health care is dependent on the availability of doctors and materiel. Even though a mother dies every two minutes, more than 95 percent of those deaths are preventable with our current knowledge and technology. In the U.S. alone, over half of maternal deaths should be preventable–but our mortality rate continues to rise largely due to race and gender inequities as well as poverty (and the structure of the US healthcare system).

Most importantly, the work of Every Mother Counts holds a special place in the hearts of nearly all the Mighty Pens participants this year. Sooz only survived massive blood loss during the birth of her child because of luck. My sister might have died several weeks after a botched c-section if she didn’t have the resources or knowledge to advocate and demand treatment with her doctors. Many of our amazing volunteer teams are mothers themselves. Several of our prize donors have their own stories–or their mothers’ stories–of barely surviving childbirth.