Every Mother Counts

Last week while I was shopping for groceries in Publix, I scanned the magazine section and picked up a copy of Women's Running with Christy Turlington Burns on the cover. I like to run myself, but I thought she was more of a yogi, so I was interested in reading the article about her. I was also interested in how a 43 year old mother of two looks like that in a sports bra and running shorts! (It turns out her secret is being a supermodel. Hmmm... I will have to look into that.)

My favorite part of the article, though, described her efforts to help improve women's health around the world by founding Every Mother Counts. Straight from the website: Every Mother Counts is an advocacy and mobilization campaign to increase education and support for maternal mortality reduction globally. The statistics Turlington Burns quoted in the article were pretty amazing - Of the approximately 350,000 deaths related to pregnancy and childbirth each year, 90% are preventable. As she told Women's Running, "If you have a healthy mom, you have a healthy family, a healthy society, and, hopefully, a healthy nation."  Sounds about right to me. And I love that she is using her celebrity to do some good!

How the article ties in with running is that she formed a marathon team called Every Mother Counts to run the New York marathon together to raise awareness about maternal mortality. I've never felt the urge to run for quite that distance, but I can see how running for a cause like that could help inspire you. I also think the team t-shirts sold on the website are very cute, and probably the only article of her clothing that I could also afford!

How you can help Every Woman Counts:

• WATCH Turlington Burns' documentary on the subject called "No Woman, No Cry" 
• RUN a race for Every Mother Counts
• DONATE an old cell phone
• LIKE Every Mother Counts on Facebook
• BUY a copy of the Every Mother Counts 2012 CD at Starbucks
• WEAR the cute t-shirt!