Want to Help Improve Maternity Care in the U.S.? Here's an Easy Way!

Sometimes it feels overwhelming to consider how you can help bring about change with some of our biggest problems in the United States. "But I'm just one person," you think. "How will something I do make a real difference?"

But consider this: What if everyone on your block did "just one thing"? And then, what if everyone on your street did "just one thing"? And just imagine if your entire neighborhood did "just one thing"? Can you see how, just like when a pebble is dropped into a pond, the ripple effect of "just one" action can create a wave that spans an entire lake?

Such is the story of the organization MomsRising: "First, a handful of women came together, and then that handful became hundreds, the hundreds became thousands, and through friends telling friends, MomsRising is now more than a million members strong and growing!"

MomsRising is a non-profit organization that tackles the most critical issues facing women, mothers, and families by educating the public and mobilizing massive grassroots actions to bring the voices and real experiences women face to local, state, and national leaders, as well as within media and corporations.

With the help of MomsRising, I present to you that "just one" pebble of action. MomsRising recently launched a free Birth & Maternal Health Resource Book which contains a collection of personal birth/pregnancy/postpartum-related stories from almost every state, as well as a stack of information, policy recommendations, articles, and list of resource organizations on topics related to maternal health/mortality/morbidity and birth.

This book was created with the intention of sharing. By sharing this book with your local, state, and national legislators (senators, representatives, congress people), you will be helping to educate with the aim of moving to action the lawmakers who can help widespread access to better care a possibility.

I encourage you today to be the pebble. Then, create the ripples: share this resource with your community and encourage them to be the pebble, and share. Together, we can affect change.

Images source: MomsRising, Birth & Maternal Health Resource Book