Ahead of Mother's Day (which is this Sunday, just in case you forgot), MTV has kicked off their "Save Our Moms" campaign with a special PSA highlighting the rise of maternal mortality. The statistics are frightening: every day, two-to-three women die in the U.S. from pregnancy-related complications, doubling in the past 30 years. The risk for these complications is three-to-four times higher in black women than white women, and what's even worse is that 60 percent of these deaths could be preventable.
To help sound the alarm on this issue, MTV—who helped reduce teen pregnancy with their 16 and Pregnant series—called on Emmy Award-winning creative Lena Waithe, Christy Turlington Burns’ Every Mother Counts initiative and the Black Mothers Matter Alliance on this piece. “Every mother deserves the right to go home with their child,” Waithe says.
The PSA was produced by Lena Waithe's Protest Art Productions, and narrated by Waithe herself, while being helmed by Minhal Baig. It debuted in primetime, as well as being pushed across all of MTV's resources, including its own website, saveourmoms.mtv.com, which will provide resources and education for pregnant mothers and their families. MTV will also be producing op-ed pieces and more with their on-air talent to bring more awareness to the issue.
Check out the full PSA up above, and if you or someone you know is having complications during pregnancy, seek help before it's too late.
