Dear friends,

Following an unprecedented and impact-filled first year of a global pandemic in 2020, Every Mother Counts continued to expand its reach to achieve long-term results globally in 2021. Since the pandemic hit, through the examples of our grantee partners, we have learned invaluable lessons about resilience and how to innovate in the face of adversity.

As we entered this next phase of our work in 2021, we came together as a team to find our “new normal” rhythm.

And we reaffirmed what we’ve always known: we are in this fight for access to safe, equitable, and respectful maternity care for all for the long haul. We will go the distance for our partners and for the mothers, families, and communities they serve.

Amidst the uncertainty of another pandemic year, we asked ourselves: “What solutions will not only address health disparities now... but also well beyond COVID-19?”

We asked ourselves: “What could transform maternity care forever?”

We didn’t have to look far for the answer.

First, we identified a few initiatives beyond our growing grants portfolio in the U.S., such as JustBirth Space, that inspired us with potential for scalable solutions that center mothers and birthing people. Then, we launched an innovative new birth equity education pilot curriculum project co-designed with University of Miami’s Miller School of Medicine faculty and students. Using our Giving Birth in America film series, the curriculum seeks to educate residents and physicians about the disproportionate impact of implicit bias and medical racism on people of color.

We quickly realized that these examples had the power to demonstrate what is possible, if only we expand our methods.

Some of them were new seeds that needed planting, and others were already starting to sprout:

The benefits of midwifery-led care worldwide cannot be overstated. Universal coverage of midwives has the potential to avert 67% of maternal deaths, 64% of neonatal deaths, and 65% of stillbirths, saving up to 4.3 million lives per year by 2035.

In 2021, strides were made in our support of midwifery. From refugee camps and surrounding communities in Bangladesh...to the central plateau of Haiti...to the mountains of Guatemala, Every Mother Counts continues to invest in midwifery education in communities that need it most.

This year alone, The HOPE Foundation for Women and Children of Bangladesh, EMC’s grantee since 2016, graduated their 5th class of 30 midwives. Corazón del Agua in Guatemala graduated their 3rd class of 8 midwives. And Midwives for Haiti, which has now trained 33% of Haiti’s entire skilled maternity care workforce, graduated their 11th class of 20 midwives!

These newly minted midwives are growing, strengthening, and diversifying the maternal health workforce in each country, delivering culturally concordant care to pregnant people and mothers who may not have had access previously.

Maternal health advocacy can take many forms. It can involve contacting elected officials, educating your community, hosting a town hall, or even sharing your own personal story. With so many ways to make change, deciding where to begin can feel overwhelming. And yet, advancing our collective mission will take us all.

That’s why in October 2021, EMC released our Advocacy Toolkit, an interactive and easy-to-use guide that supports everyone in building their own unique maternal health advocacy approach.

This action-oriented guide builds on Every Mother Counts’ longstanding work in maternal health advocacy to encourage everyone to take action to advance maternal health and birth equity in a way that taps into their own strengths and passions. The Advocacy Toolkit works to demystify advocacy by breaking down the who-what-where-when-why-how of advocacy, providing actionable tools to help guide everyone towards making change.

As part of a long-term vision, EMC’s grantee in Colorado, Elephant Circle, led the development of the most comprehensive state-level birth equity legislation in the U.S.

The Birth Equity Bill package, which was developed and driven by the direct experiences of community members, midwives, and doulas, tackles various dimensions of inequity in maternal health, including extending postpartum Medicaid coverage from two months to one year, ensuring perinatal support for incarcerated persons and families, and other key protections.

As the pandemic intensified in Indonesia, EMC grantee Bumi Sehat built a special isolation room in partnership with the local Department of Health in Papua to continue to care for COVID-positive women during pregnancy, childbirth, and postpartum.

This new initiative was designed to protect the right of everyone to give birth in a place of their choice, where they feel safe and respected.

For several years, Every Mother Counts has been a strong voice in efforts to build and advance the Black Maternal Health Momnibus, a package of twelve bills addressing the maternal health crisis in the U.S. The legislation advances critically important policies that address the support needed to address birth equity, particularly for Black birthing people, and dedicate robust funding to ensure quality health care, community support, and a myriad of social support programs that pregnant and postpartum women desperately need.

2021 brought a significant win for advocates for the Black Maternal Health Momnibus. On November 30th, the Protecting Moms Who Served Act was signed into law after passing in both the Senate and House of Representatives, making it the first bill from the Black Maternal Health Momnibus to become law. This bill improves maternity care among veterans through comprehensive research and maternity care coordination programs.

Every Mother Counts has supported the development of and advocacy for the Momnibus even before its initial introduction in 2020 and continues to advocate for the passage of each of its bills.

Throughout 2021, EMC worked with the New York State Birth Center Association and other birth center advocates to mobilize NY community members to pass the New York midwife-led birth center bill (A.259A / S.1414A). This bill, which unanimously passed in the NY Senate and Assembly, works to eliminate barriers to opening midwife-led birth centers, increasing access to care and options for New York’s birthing people and families.

We led several take action campaigns, provided testimony on the bill in front of the NYS Assembly, submitted letters of support, and called on community members to advocate with state policymakers. With Governor Kathy Hochul’s signature on December 31st, this key legislation became law in New York, paving the way for more midwife-led birth centers. Passing this key bill was a critical step towards ensuring that New York’s mothers and birthing people can access care and services in birth settings proven to result in positive health outcomes, cost-effective care, and health equity.

With the continued work of tireless advocates in Congress, historic maternal health provisions were integrated into the Build Back Better Act, a package of bills to improve the social welfare and wellbeing of people living in the U.S.

EMC was excited to see that the Build Back Better Act included permanent funds for all 50 states to extend Medicaid for a full year postpartum and every eligible provision of the Black Maternal Health Momnibus Act of 2021. We worked quickly to mobilize our community to urge their Members of Congress to pass these key maternal health provisions in each iteration of the Build Back Better Act.

While the bill was not passed in 2021, these advancements in political will to prioritize mothers and birthing people at the national level were unprecedented.

The need for comprehensive and person-centered support during pregnancy, childbirth, and the postpartum period has long been a critical gap for maternal health in the United States, particularly for Black birthing people. Then, the COVID-19 pandemic emerged, leading to unprecedented isolation, fear, and anxiety for families, and exacerbating longstanding gaps in the health care system and structural barriers to accessing maternity care.

In response, Every Mother Counts and our partners Ancient Song Doula Services, Village Birth International, and Jacaranda Health launched JustBirth Space – a free virtual platform, grounded in a birth justice framework – to connect pregnant and birthing people to comprehensive and person-centered support. Based on the expertise of community-based doula programs and grounded in anti-racist models of care, JustBirth Space offers responsive and compassionate perinatal support through text and video chat, as well as virtual support groups and classes for mothers, pregnant people and families, all free of charge.

By the end of 2021, JustBirth Space had engaged 3,175 birthing people and their families via text, video calls, and virtual support groups and classes.

A large body of research indicates that institutional racism and racial bias among healthcare providers are key contributors to disparities in maternal health outcomes. Yet, many medical students do not receive training on understanding racism, its effects on health, and strategies to combat racism in healthcare.

To address this gap, EMC partnered with University of Miami’s Miller School of Medicine in 2021 to co-design and pilot a workshop curriculum centered on addressing racial disparities in maternal health. Our curriculum drew from an interdisciplinary evidence base and EMC’s expertise in storytelling, interweaving our Giving Birth in America films with research on the maternal health landscape, drivers of disparities, and solutions for addressing them.

Overall, 42 participants registered for the pilot workshop series “Introduction to Addressing Racial Disparities in Maternal Health,” which launched in April 2021 and consisted of four virtual sessions. In light of the pilot’s success, the Miller School of Medicine formally integrated the curriculum into its clerkship program to reach all medical students. The early success of the pilot holds promise for the integration of the curriculum into additional medical programs across the country.

Quality, respectful, and equitable maternity care is a fundamental human right. Everyone deserves the information they need to exercise their rights and make decisions about their care that reflect their values and preferences.

In 2021, to expand the reach of our message to new audiences and serve more pregnant and postpartum people than ever before, we began a year-long partnership with CVS and the CVS Foundation. With their support, we began an ambitious project to center the stories and wisdom of doulas, midwives, doctors, and pregnant people and mothers.

The series, created for national launch in 2022, is designed to educate people about their pregnancy and birth options, help them take an active role in their maternity care, and to remind them that they are not alone during pregnancy, birth, and beyond.

After kicking off the year virtually, we were able to bring our community of supporters together for a series of events to advance our mission with action, impact, and generous financial support across 2021.

We are grateful for every donation, like, share, and local action taken by the Every Mother Counts community in 2021. It is through this collective impact that we will achieve our long-term vision, and collectively build the world we envision together.

As vaccines rolled out, we were able to come together in-person for certain opportunities to support and spread awareness! We hosted meaningful conversations with a few of our U.S. based grantee partners in NYC, San Francisco, and Los Angeles.

Wellness and fitness have always been an integral part of engaging and building our community of supporters. 2021 was no exception. Team EMC hit the ground running by resuming our participation in the Chicago Marathon, NYC Marathon, and Golden Gate Half Marathon & 5k.

Every Mother Counts has been collaborating with companies and brands who are aligned with our mission since the start. In partnership with EMC, these brands rally their employees and customers in support of our mission and activations.

Thanks to the companies who stepped up by sponsoring Match campaigns this year. These critical sponsorships help EMC maximize fundraising and multiply our impact each year.