Supermodel's 'Survivor's Guilt' Pushes Her to Make Film on Mothers' Health

Trailer: No Woman, No Cry

Supermodel Christy Turlington Burns has made her directorial debut with the film "No Woman, No Cry," which premiered at New York's Tribeca Film Festival on Saturday.

Turlington Burns was inspired to make the film after the birth of her first child, in which she experienced hemorrhaging. "I had ... survivor's guilt," Turlington Burns, who is an advocate for maternal health for humanitarian group CARE, told Reuters. "I was fortunate, but think of all the women around the world who aren't."

According to the World Health Organization, the main causes of deaths related to childbirth are hemorrhage, infection, high blood pressure, unsafe abortion, and obstructed labor.

Improving maternal health is one of the UN's Millennium Development Goals. To show that the goals are achievable, experts have pointed to Bangladesh, one of the countries featured in the film.

In Bangladesh, abortion mortality fell by three quarters over the past three decades. A massive decrease in maternal deaths occurred because women now have access to safe abortion services and emergency obstetric care, a study by Carine Ronsmans from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine showed.

"No Woman, No Cry" also features the stories of a Maasai tribe in Tanzania, a post-abortion care ward in Guatemala, and a prenatal clinic in the United States.

Check out other solutions for improving maternal health or to participate in the global call to solutions, please visit Healthy Mothers, Strong World: The Next Generation of Ideas for Maternal Health. www.changemakers.com/maternalhealth