Like anyone would be, we were shocked to find out that America is THE most dangerous industrialized nation to have a baby in. This year, 700 new moms will die in childbirth and over 50,000 will suffer life-threatening complications due to pregnancy, with women of color suffering at a rate 3x higher.

And it’s only getting worse.

We needed a way to jolt people into demanding their representatives in Congress enact an agenda to turn this completely solvable crisis around. Upon realizing that there’s hardly anything more iconic than the receiving blankets babies get when they’re born - who hasn’t seen these blankets wrapping up newborn babies throughout their social media feeds? - we printed harrowing statistics on 700 of these blankets, one for each dying mother, and staged an installation at the National Mall to launch our #BlanketChange campaign. People were shocked into learning the truth about what’s happening with these new moms, and that a quick message to their representative could help make a big difference. The event was a stunning success, and we look forward to seeing real change in the upcoming years in the U.S. maternal death rate.

Shorty Award Finalist