Cate, Sadye, Caroline and I met with the organization Every Mother Counts (EMC). Every Mother Counts is an organization that helps women across the world with maternal health issues. They go to different places around the earth and help different areas get the resources they need to make sure that every woman has a safe childbirth. We met with Christy Burns, the founder, and two other employees named Perrie Grace and Maddy Wasserman. We asked them a lot of questions about how they found EMC and what they do there. Perrie is a women’s reproductive rights expert and helps a lot with the organization. Maddy is a doula and now is in charge of the “running” aspect of the organization.

Perrie and Maddy both shared a lot about what EMC does. They told us about how the U.S is 60th in worldwide terms of maternal health. They also said how we lose 2 women everyday from birth complications and that 98% of these tragedies are preventable. Maddy also told us about how she is a doula. She explained how the doula/client relationship is a really close, intimate and long process. Maddy works with one person at a time and educates them about what is happening with their bodies and pregnancy, and then helps them through the childbirth process. I think that this is really cool. Maddy has a really important job as a doula. Before our visit I didn’t know what a doula was, but now I’m glad that I do. Maybe we can add something about doulas and their importance in our teach-in. Something that our group can do next is research more about doulas and other important people that are crucial to a pregnancy. I think it would be interesting to be well educated about everyone who is involved in the process. 

Christie, Perrie, and Maddy are all very knowledgeable women. They want us to continue to work with EMC and they are going to connect us to other organizations/companies. One of the companies that they were talking about was called Lola. Lola is a tampon company that sends you 100% cotton tampons to you once a month. They were also talking about a company called Seventh Generation. They have green cleaning and baby supplies.

Overall, our visit at Every Mother Counts was so great. The experience was so moving. Especially talking to three very smart and cool women. I think that our group learned a lot and definitely has more of a feel of what to expect.

Here is a picture of my group and I with Perrie Grace and Maddy Wasserman.

*image was taken at our fieldwork with Every Mother Counts