Watching this week’s episode of Downton Abbey in which Lady Sybil died of eclampsia, I sobbed.  And sobbed.   I knew I was over-doing it but it was just so sad.

This fictional character’s death perhaps shouldn’t have elicited such emotion from me, especially since real mothers die every minute of every day.  But seeing a woman in die in childbirth, even in a fictional 1920’s English-manor setting, underlines the importance of making birth safe. In many countries giving life can still mean death for mothers.

CleanBirth.org works to prevent just such preventable deaths in southern Laos, where moms and babies die at alarming numbers.   By providing birthing supplies and education, we hope to lower these rates.  Among other things, we alert women and families to potential pregnancy warning signs like those experience by Sybil: headache, dizziness, swollen legs, and incoherence.

Be part of our campaign to save 1,000 moms and 1,000 babies:

http://startsomegood.com/Venture/cleanbirth/Campaigns/Show/save_the_lives_of_mothers_and_infants_in_laos

Here’s so more information from an ABC article on eclampsia.

Preeclampsia, sometimes called toxemia, is out-of-control hypertension in pregnancy and can be particularly dangerous because a woman usually doesn’t feel sick.

One in 10 women will develop preeclampsia and 1 in 100 will develop the more serious eclampsia, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.