Mother’s Day Petition to create an office of maternal health in the Department of Health and Human Services

Remember that report that came out from Amnesty International recently, Deadly Delivery?  It told us that maternal mortality is up %42 in the US since the 1980’s and that in New York City, women of color are 8 times more likely to die in childbirth than white women.  If this isn’t a wake up call, we’re not sure what is!

We’ve been talking a lot about fistula, which is easy to see as an “over-there” problem, but this new report brings it home.  Especially since the same factors that contribute to fistula are the ones at work here: poverty, access to transportation, lack of skilled medical care, and sexism.

This Mother’s Day, Amnesty International is sponsoring a petition to Kathleen Sibelius urging her to create an Office of Maternal Health at the Department of Health and Human Services.  You can read more about it and sign the petition on their website.

And don’t forget the resources from the Religious Institute’s Rachel Sabbath for your Mother’s Day service this Sunday!