White House Correspondents Insider

Behind the scenes of the most powerful city in the world — Washington, D.C. — and those who cover it.

Sarah Brown: Leading the Maternal Health Campaign

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Sarah Brown and Ambassador Nancy Brinker

Sarah Brown, the Global Patron of the White Ribbon Alliance and the wife of former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, returned to New York to advocate for governments and non-governmental organizations to lead the final push to prevent maternal death, the United Nations Millennium Development Goal #5.

“One-thousand  women die every day in pregnancy and childbirth in avoidable, tragic circumstances,” said Sarah Brown, Global Patron of the White Ribbon Alliance. “We have seen some great progress in recent years to reduce these numbers, but our campaigning call continues.

Ms. Brown led the WRA’s ‘Wake Up Call for Women and Newborns of the World’ breakfast meeting, co-hosted by Arianna Huffington and Donna Karan, making a direct appeal for everyone to find their own way to help the maternal health campaign.

The packed event was part of the 2nd Annual Women: Inspiration & Enterprise (WIE) symposium and included the Second Lady Dr. Jill Biden, Ambassador Nancy Brinker from the Susan G. Koman Foundation, NBC’s Bonnie Hammer, CNN’s Hilary Rosen, Susan McCue from Message Global, actress Fran Drescher, author Rachel Simmons, Lucy Doughty and Theresa Shaver from the WRA.

Sarah Brown’s work with the White Ribbon Alliance began in 2008 and has since grown by “leaps and bounds” to a world-wide movement for improving the health care and livelihood of pregnant women.  On MSNBC’s Mitchell Reports, Brown appeared with Angela Nguku of the WRA – Kenya and continued to voice the call to provide mothers everywhere with the basic supplies to have a healthy birth and avoid preventable deaths.

‘The mother is at the heart of her family, and at the heart of her community, so when you’re loosing a mother, she looses her life but her newborn is very unlikely to survive, and her older surviving children are at such risk without their mother, and the community’s lost a core member of that world too.  When you’re losing a mother, you’re losing so much more than that single woman’s life,” said Brown.

Watch the full interview below:

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White Ribbon Alliance Holds Power Breakfast for Safe Motherhood

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As world leaders gathered in New York for the opening of the United Nations, so did some of the world’s most powerful leaders in business, media, philanthropy fashion and politics, with one purpose: to empower and inspire women around the globe.

White Ribbon Alliance Global Patron Sarah Brown, president and editor-in-chief of the AOL Huffington Post Media Group Arianna Huffington, and famed fashion designer Donna Karan kicked off a day of powerful panel discussions at the WRA’s ‘Wake Up Call for Women and Newborns of the World’ breakfast. “1,000 women die every day in pregnancy and childbirth in avoidable, tragic circumstances. We have seen some great progress in recent years to reduce these numbers, but our campaigning call continues. The message from the WRA Wake Up Call is that the world’s powerful women care and will act for their sisters everywhere,” said Brown.

Panelists discussed maternal mortality as a key issue to solving some of the world’s most dire problems and that it is a preventable issue that requires widespread awareness and change in the way we think about women in society.

The packed event came on the last day of the 2nd Annual Women: Inspiration & Enterprise (WIE) symposium which featured such guests and speakers as Dr. Jill Biden, Ambassador Nancy Brinker, Fran Drescher, Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, Christy Turlington Burns, Barbara Bush, Anita McBride, Mark Dybul, Ray Chambers, Van Jones, Susan McCue, and Deborra Lee-Furness.

Check out Sarah Brown and Angela Nguku of the WRA, Kenya were featured on MSNBC’s Mitchell Reports talking about safe motherhood.

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CURE's Susan Axelrod on The Great Dr. Bernadine Healy

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Loss and a Legacy

Bernadine Healy at CURE DC Lunch - July, 2009

By CURE Founder, Susan Axelrod

I was stunned and saddened last night when I heard about the death of Bernadine Healy.

I had the pleasure of meeting Dr. Healy when I started spending time in Washington, DC a few years ago.  Our mutual friend Tammy Haddad introduced us, knowing we would have much in common and much to share.  We first met over cocktails, and then she graciously attended a CURE luncheon we hosted in DC. We exchanged a few emails, and then I lost touch.  I had no idea she was struggling with a recurrence of brain cancer.

I was in awe, and a bit nervous, when we got together that first time. Here I was sharing drinks with a former Director of the NIH (not to mention the first female Director!).  People like me were a dime a dozen–she’d likely met with way too many of us, and heard our sad stories.  I was just another patient advocate looking for  tips on how to advance my disease.

But, she immediately put me at ease, and made me feel as if epilepsy research was at the top of her agenda as well. It felt like we were long-time fellow crusaders, and she was full of wise suggestions and ample support and encouragement.

I dream of the day when we will have cured epilepsy, and that I can sit back and write down my reflections on all the amazing people I have met along this journey.  So many individuals from so many different walks of life. They have all motivated me, each in unique and special ways, sometimes with just a single nugget that resonated with me, motivating and fueling–or re-fueling–my energy to keep up this fight.

Here’s the nugget Bernadine left me with–words that I have thought of so often since she uttered them,and now will certainly never forget:

“There is no history of scientific progress in a disease state that has not been started and fueled by patient advocates.  Keep up this good work.”

I hope her words inspire you, as they did me, to strengthen your commitment to advancing epilepsy research. It began with us, and it will continue to grow–but not without us.