No Woman, No Cry

Christy Turlington Burns

Driven by curiosity after a labor-induced scare, model Christy Turlington Burns was stunned to learn that 1,000 women die each day and 500,00 die each year during childbirth.  Saddened by the harsh realities that many women have difficulty accessing the prenatal care they need and that 90% of these deaths are preventable, Burns was inspired to learn more about maternal health and has recently produced a documentary raising awareness for at-risk mothers-to-be.  In “No Woman, No Cry”, her directorial debut, she shares the poignant stories of at-risk pregnant women in four parts of the world, including a remote Maasai tribe in Tanzania, a slum of Bangladesh, a post-abortion care ward in Guatemala, and a prenatal clinic in the United States.  Ultimately, Burns hopes that ”…through the universal experience of birth, we can help create a mainstream maternal health movement that ensures the lives and well-being of mothers worldwide, for generations to come.”

Tune in to the Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN) tomorrow, May 7th, at 9:30pm (ET/PT)/8:30pm (CT) and again on Mother’s Day, this Sunday, May 8th at 1pm (ET?PT)/12noon (CT).