We believe that every woman counts and where every woman despite her class, caste has the right to have a safe childbirth. Maternal health is a sound investment strategy and we believe that it is important to speak collectively, act quickly and bring about long-lasting change.

Imagine living with a condition which forced you to change your wet, soiled clothes every few hours or which led to your family abandoning you or being shunned by your community. This is the reality of life for over two million women and girls suffering from obstetric fistula.

We might say that to be injured by pregnancy or through birthing at age 25 is extremely sad; that at the age of 30, it is deeply traumatic, or maybe, that at the age of 40, it is devastating. But what words should we apply when pregnancy injures -- for life -- a 10-, 11- or 12-year-old?

Until a decade ago, fistula was literally not on the global health agenda, even though it is arguably the most devastating and disabling of all childbirth injuries. The simple reason: women who suffer from fistula live almost exclusively in rural areas of very resource constrained countries, and are therefore some of the least empowered human beings on the planet.

Even more shocking is that more babies die within the first day of life in the United States than any other country in the world. This is not only the highest rate of any industrialized country, it is also 50 percent greater than all other industrialized countries combined. In our own backyard, mothers are experiencing unhealthy pregnancies and deliveries, and babies are dying.

May is the month when we celebrate our mothers. For Fatoumata, a mother in Guinea, she is celebrating a brand new life. Recently, she was lifted from ...

This month, as many of my colleagues around the world celebrate motherhood, I work towards a future where all the mothers in my community have access to safe and healthy pregnancies -- a future free of the cries that once filled the homes of my neighbors.

Please join us in making needless maternal deaths a thing of the past -- for girls and women everywhere.