Why Families Need Health Care Reform Now More Than Ever

Christy Turlington @ Huffington Post - When I set out to make "No Woman, No Cry, a documentary film about the global state of maternal health three years ago, I had no idea just how dismal a job we were doing for our nation's families. I was inspired to highlight the under-reported issue of maternal mortality after learning that almost all of the hundreds of thousands of maternal deaths that occur each year are preventable. Yes, 90 percent! And yet, when I came to know these facts, I discovered that little progress had been reported (for decades) in many countries around the world.

We, as a global community, could and should be doing more if we value our women. The majority of the global burden of maternal deaths occurs in the developing world. In fact, 66 percent occur in just 11 countries. While this statistic is an unjust reality, it may not be all that surprising. What did rattle me was the fact that the United States was ranked behind 40 other countries with regard to maternal care, leaving us in 41st place. Read more.