Latina Super Model fights for Mothers

     A woman dies from childbirth complications every 90 seconds. Pregnancy is also the leading killer of women ages 15-19 in poor countries all over the world.

     "Once I learned the global statistics, I had to do what I could to help to improve maternal health and reduce preventable maternal deaths," Christy Turlington Burns explains.

        She was a world famous American fashion model with a Salvadoran mother. But Christy Turlington Burns is more than a pretty face on the cover of a fashion magazine.  In the 1990’s she became an activist and joined the Salvadoran American Humanitarian Foundation.  After her own difficult pregnancy, she became an advocate for maternal health and worked for CARE.  She went back to college to get a Master’s Degree in Public Health.  She started an organization called “Every Mother Counts” and spent two years making a documentary movie called “No Woman, No Cry”.  The movie shows how women suffer giving birth in poor conditions in Guatemala, Tanzania, and Bangladesh.

    Christy Turlington Burns travels between the world of the rich and famous and the poor and powerless working for change that will save mother’s lives. 

Source: Women’s health site Empowher.