Christy Turlington’s ‘Every Mother Counts’ Defines Contraception As Essential To Maternal Health

One of the signifying factors of quality maternal healthcare is family planning (i.e. access to birth control), according to Christy Turlington. Her new project, Every Mother Counts, is dedicated to improving maternal health in underdeveloped countries. On her website, Christy has laid out exactly what barriers prevent these women from having healthy families. Right along side emergency services and postpartum care is contraception, signifying how critical it is that mothers be able to control their fertility for the sake of their health.

Christy’s website writes that “planning and spacing of births has a powerful impact on the survival of the mother and her child.” Statistically, children born less than two years after a previous birth are about two-and-a-half times more likely to die than children born three-to-five years after the previous birth.

According to Every Mother Counts, the leading cause of death for women aged 15 to 19 is complications of pregnancy and childbirth. The mortality rate is often times so high because young and poor women don’t access to family planning services. The mortality rate of babies born to young mothers is also very high.

Modern contraception could prevent nearly 150,000 maternal deaths in these developing countries. Maternal deaths due to lack of abortion access would be reduced by 82 percent, Every Woman Counts reports.

In 171 countries, access to contraception means healthier mothers who live long enough to see their families grow. Christy’s project highlights well how essential birth control access is to the health of women and therefore to their children — both in the US and abroad.

 

 

 

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