Safe Motherhood Quilt Project

The SAFE MOTHERHOOD QUILT PROJECT:

The Safe Motherhood Quilt Project is a national effort developed to draw public attention to the current maternal death rates, as well as to the gross underreporting of maternal deaths in the United States, and to honor those women who have died of pregnancy-related causes since 1982.

Ina May Gaskin and one of the Safe Motherhood Quilt Panels

YOUTUBE video

  Ina May shows quilt panels

Safe Motherhood quilt project

• Why are maternal death rates under reported in the U.S? 

• Why is there no consistent,  systematic way for documenting maternal deaths?

• Why is the maternal death rate in other countries lower than in the US?  

• This information needs to be assessed and analyzed in order to make policy and health-care related proposals to help prevent future pregnancy-related deaths and in turn decrease the maternal death rate!

The Safe Motherhood Quilt Project was founded by Ina May Gaskin, the mother of the U.S. modern midwifery movement over 10 years ago.    Ina May's vision was that each mother who died in childbirth since 1982 (the year after which  no improvement  occurs in maternal mortality) be commemorated with a unique quilt square.  To date, multiple Safe Motherhood Quilts have been made, each consisting of 20 unique squares.  Quilters around the country continue to  design and dedicate quilt squares to the memory of women in the U.S. who have  died of pregnancy-related causes.  The Safe Motherhood Quilt is the voice for women who can no longer speak for themselves.

words from Ina May

"...

• At least 30 other countries have lower maternal death rates than the U.S.
• There has been no reduction in the maternal death rate in the U.S. since 1982.
• The CDC acknowledges that we have a massive problem of underreporting of maternal deaths in the U.S. and that our reported rate may be only 1/3 to 1/2 of the actual total number.  Maternal death rates are four times as high in the African-American community as in the Caucasian community.
• 
  
• There is no federal requirement that the states carry out a confidential review of all maternal deaths in order to be sure that all are counted, to analyze the principle causes of preventable deaths and to make policy recommendations to prevent such deaths in the future. In most countries with lower maternal death rates than ours, maternal deaths are systematically reviewed and there are lower levels of underreporting of such deaths than the CDC says we have in the U.S."

YouTube Videos
Ina May, first midwife to receive the award, speaks at the Right Livelihood Awards

Quilt blocks and Quilters

please contact me if you'd like your page linked here.

My quilt blocks: Agnes
Other quilter's blocks: Laura

I had the privelege to display a few panels at my local library 

for the month of June 2011