Every Mother Counts

My second bubba Olivia and I Motherhood is such an amazing gift.

It takes you on a whirl-wind adventure through the realms of body, mind and spirit. There are some people that have super-easy pregnancies with no complication, while others have horrendous experiences that require medical supervision. 

I've been pregnant three times. My first pregnancy ended in miscarriage when I was 20. I was about 16 weeks when I started bleeding and needed to go to the hospital. The baby still had a heartbeat and I was given a 20% chance that with some bed rest the baby might survive. Sadly, it didn't make it and I went through one of the darkest emotional times of my life to that point. However, at 21 I gave birth to a healthy baby boy the following year. 

My water broke 4 weeks early and it took 34 long and arduous hours with medical intervention to drag my little bundle of joy out of me. His big head was stuck because my pelvis was too small. The end result was a lot of blood loss and cuts/tearing etc. The doctor called it third degree lacerations which required 17 stitches + some micro-surgery in the downstairs department. I remember leaving my body and seeing my mum and my ex-husband in the hospital room surrounding me. I'm not sure if you'd call it a near death experience but I was aware that 'I' was outside my body floating up towards the oh-so-cliché 'white light'. But that's a story for another day...

Five years later when I became pregnant with my daughter (pictured above) I opted to have a Cesarean Section because it was likely that I would experience another long and painful birth if I chose the va-jay-jay as an exit strategy. 

These experience have been so wonderful and so empowering. I feel really grateful to live in a country with such excellent maternal health care. Chances are that if I lived in Tanzania or Bangladesh when I gave birth to my son I would have died. 

I recently stumbled upon an organisation called EVERY MOTHER COUNTS founded by film-maker + super model Christy Turlington. As a mother I felt the urgent need to start spreading the word about the cause so I started tweeting about it...

EveryMotherCounts.org is an advocacy campaign to increase education and support for maternal and child health around the world. The campaign invites people to join the conversation about the greatly needed improvements required to ensure that women and newborns can survive. The facts are alarming. 

A woman dies every 90 seconds from a complication in pregnancy. 90% of deaths are preventable. 

Watch the videos below to learn more and how you can help. Chances are (if you're like me) you might shed a few tears and want to spread the word about how you can help. Every action taken will make a difference. 

 5 Ways You Can Help Today 

1. Visit EveryMotherCounts.org and check out their resources
2. DONATE some money
3. Tweet about it to @everymomcounts + CTurlington with the hashtag #maternalhealth
4. Join the conversation on their Facebook page
5. Share this blog post (using the buttons below) OR write your own blog post and tweet me about it - my committment is to support the awareness of EveryMotherCounts.org in any way I can.

The more we actively raise awareness for the way that society values women, the more of a difference we can make. This issue is really close to my heart, and if you're a mother I'm sure it's close to yours too.

Next time you hear a pregnant woman complaining about gaining weight or wishing the time was over until the baby would arrive... just remind her how fortunate she is that there is adequate health care and a government willing to keep her and her baby alive. 

Let's visualise a world with the resources it needs. 

With LOVE,

Sarah xo

ps. Let's talk about this on Facebook. 

Empowering Women will Change the World

My 5-year-old daughter Olivia is always writing little love notes.

There are numerous tiny pieces of paper all over the house with 'LOVE' and 'I LOVE YOU MUMMY' written on them. It's her way of artistically expressing how she feels. 

The other day she handed me a pink love-heart shaped piece of paper. On the front she had written: 'I'll do my best to change the world.' And on the flipside it had in capital letters: 'LOVE'.

Olivia's original noteI wondered what she thinks is wrong with the world that she has to change? 

The TEDx talk (below) by Natalie MacNeil is awesome. She speaks about women being the largest block of human untapped potential. Natalie also references herself as an 8-year old girl watching the TV and witnessing horrific events that made her want to change the world and empower women.

It made me think of my Olivia's ambition and how if she's thinking like this at 5, what will she be like at 25? 

Natalie's video also reminded me to re-invest my Kiva credit. If you're not familiar with KIVA.ORG - it's a micro-finance lender that empowers entrepreneurs to pay back loans. It's awesome. You can check out my lender page here. My plan is to try and teach my kids about philanthropy so that they will learn about the concept of 'giving back' and how powerful that can be for feeling like you're making a difference no matter how small your contribution. 

Empowering women will change the world. 

If you're a woman or a man that can see the sense in equality for a sparkly and empowered future then please share this post. If you're not ready, then start by creating little LOVE notes and putting them all over your house. I guess any expression of LOVE is a step in the right direction.

Love Sarah xo