No Mother’s Day: Christy Turlington spotlights maternal mortality

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Model Christy Turlington doesn’t want you to celebrate Mother’s Day. In fact, she’s devoted an entire campaign to encouraging mothers to disappear on the holiday.

It’s all part of her No Mother’s Day campaign in collaboration with New York-based creative agency CHI&Partners and Every Mother Counts, meant to bring awareness to the hundreds of thousands of women who die each year from complications related to pregnancy or childbirth. In the film shown above, produced by Turlington’s husband Ed Burns, Turlington and friends, including Jennifer Connelly and Debra Messing, ask women to disappear on Mother’s Day in an act of solidarity.

‘Say no to gifts and phone calls, or no to gifts and yes to phone calls, or just go silent on social media -- it’s your choice,’ said Turlington in a release. ‘Our primary hope is that you spend a few moments on May 13 to think about those unable to do the same.’

Turlington made her directorial debut in 2010 with the film ‘No Woman, No Cry’ where she chronicled the stories of at-risk pregnant women in Tanzania, Bangladesh, Guatemala and a prenatal clinic in the U.S. The No Mother’s Day campaign is another step in her ongoing efforts to bring about awareness.

Turlington measures the success of the campaign by the number of ‘actions’ taken to reduce maternal mortality, with the goal being 5 million actions by 2015. These actions include ways to raise awareness and funds. The website Everymothercounts.org details how to get involved, including signing a pledge to help reduce needless deaths, running or walking your own Every Mother Counts 5K and purchasing the official team shirts, giving a monetary donation or donating a phone.

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— Jenn Harris
twitter.com/jenn_harris

Video: Christy Turlington’s video to promote the No Mother’s Day mobilization campaign.