Updates

Did you see all the amazing Mother’s Day articles that called attention to global maternal health and the need to provide for the hundreds of thousands of mothers who die in pregnancy and childbirth every year? Below are some of the highlights. A big thank you to every journalist, blogger, and author who chose to celebrate Mother's Day by drawing attention to the problem of maternal mortality around the world.

• Nicholas Kristof: “Celebrate: Save a Mother”
• Christy Turlington Burns: “Pull down the barriers to maternal health care access.”
• Senators Chris Dodd and Bill Frist: “Honoring mothers worldwide"
• Tamar Abrams: “Mothers shouldn’t have to fear for their lives”
• Ban Ki-moon: "Opinion: Women shouldn't die giving birth"
• The Huffington Post: “Countdown to Mother’s Day” series

Women Deliver is excited to announce a wonderful new program developed for the Women Deliver 2010 conference called the “Professional Allies Program.”

The idea is to connect professionals in different and varying fields attending Women Deliver 2010 with the 100 Young Leaders who will be attending the Women Deliver youth pre-conference to facilitate information exchange and help them navigate the conference. The partnership will require 3 things from the “professional ally”: a pre-conference email exchange, a Sunday meet-and-greet, and a Wednesday follow up. 

For more information, please read this letter. If you are interested in participating, please fill out this form and return to us by May 14, 2010. Please note, this program is only open to registered participants. To register for the conference please go here.

The Globe and Mail wrote a terrific editorial on the current issues around Canada’s attempts to incorporating maternal health in discussions at the G8 Summit. As the article says:

“Canada has expressed a desire to champion the issue of maternal, reproductive and child health at the G8 summit.

So it is strange in the extreme that the country has yet to respond to an invitation to attend a global conference on the subject, to be held June 7-9, in Washington, just weeks before the G8 gathering.”