I learned just how serious birth can be when I became a mother in 2003. Suddenly my ideal birth experience became quite the opposite while delivering my daughter and my midwife called for backup. Luckily for us, there was someone standing by and together they worked as a team to manage the situation and my daughter and I survived.

Weeks later I would learn that the same complication which I endured contributes to the leading cause of maternal death in the world today, and that the lack of access to emergency obstetric care is one of the biggest barriers for pregnant women. A few years later, I gave birth to my second child and, soon after, set out to learn why hundreds of thousands of girls and women continue to die each year when we know how to prevent most pregnancy-related deaths.

Holding a newborn in Bali. Picture: Josh Estey/Every Mother Counts

Over the course of two years I travelled around the world to film the documentary, No Woman, No Cry. We turned our lens on four countries - Tanzania, Bangladesh, Guatemala and the United States, where I live and delivered both of my children - to examine the barriers which prevent women accessing maternity care at critical times in their pregnancies. I learned pretty early on that the leading cause of death in the world for girls ages 15-19 is pregnancy. These young women have had virtually no sexual or reproductive health education. Many of them have only completed primary education. Most of them did not become pregnant through consensual sex. Therefore, none of these pregnancies are planned. For far too many of them, pregnancy is a death sentence.

I then founded Every Mother Counts in 2010 to educate the public about the challenges and solutions surrounding maternal health, because I believe that any one preventable death is one too many. Access to information and capable health workers is a human right as is the ability to plan one's family.

That's why I'm delighted that Andrew Mitchell, the UK's International Development Secretary, and Melinda Gates are helping to focus the minds of world leaders on family planning and the rights of millions of girls and women. The London Summit on Family Planning is a big step which could deliver huge change for people who so badly need it.

Family planning not only saves lives; it saves money. In many ways it's as simple as that.

Filming in Africa, Asia and Central America, I've seen and heard the demand. The figures are shocking: more than 200 million women in the very poorest countries don't have the access they want to modern, safe family planning methods. As Save the Children recently pointed out, 50,000 teenagers die each year due to complications in pregnancy and childbirth because their bodies are simply not ready to give birth.

This is about human rights and believing that all women's lives have value.

By 2020, if 120 million more women have access to contraceptives, there will be 100 million fewer unintended pregnancies, 200,000 fewer deaths of women and girls in pregnancy and childbirth, and more than 50 million fewer abortions. The lives of nearly three million babies under the age of one will be saved.

Family planning is also a great investment and the returns are real. Each £1 spent on family planning can save governments nearly £4 on healthcare spending, housing, water and other public services. Girls and women in poor countries who can plan and space their pregnancies are healthier and better educated. Conversely, when girls stay in school longer, they are more likely to delay marriage and first pregnancies and have fewer children that they are better able to care for. Their families and their economies benefit as a result.

In fact, family planning is one of the best economic investments a country can make. And it is one of the most crucial steps towards an even greater goal - reducing world poverty.
That's why I'm proud that Every Mother Counts, and the work it does, is part of a wider worldwide movement; one which is not only giving women the opportunities they deserve, but ultimately creating a fairer world for everyone.

My hope is that the summit and the provision of family planning will go a long way to ending the lottery faced by most girls and women in the developing world. That way, we'll all have luck on our side.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Please note, this is a guest blog. Views expressed here do not necessarily represent the views of DFID or have the support of the British Government.

UK aid is changing lives - see the results, share the stories and get involved on Facebook.

See the latest updates from the London Summit on Family Planning.

Stories create hope. Everywhere I travel, I listen to stories that blow my mind with the courage, personal sacrifices and perseverance of so many women.

Yes, women have made significant progress in many respects, but there remains a wide gender gap in most parts of the world that reminds us there is still quite a long way to go.

In the days prior to International Women's Day, I attended some of the sessions at the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW56) whose focus, this year, was on rural and indigenous women, who remain particularly vulnerable and far from enjoying their full human rights.

Holding a newborn in Bali. Picture: Josh Estey/Every Mother Counts

Many of the heroic testimonies that I heard last week, of women overcoming great barriers and breaking with stereotypes, continue, and must continue, until every woman has access to the information, tools and opportunities that so many others have begun to enjoy.

Sharing the stories of our struggles and triumph remains one of the most powerful ways forward. First we must see that empowerment and all that is possible, before we may begin to own it for ourselves.

This week, my friends in the UK are celebrating 'Mothering Sunday', a day devoted to celebrating and commemorating mothers and the vital and often thankless role we play in our families and societies. If even for one day out of the year, we can pause to consider how important they are and perhaps even ponder what our world would be without them, it would do us some good. Hard to imagine, but in doing so we may all better appreciate what we do have. Let's face it, without our mums, our challenges would be greater and our will to overcome less strong.

As a global maternal health advocate, I spend my days considering the motherless quite a lot. I am acutely aware that 1000 women die each day from pregnancy and childbirth-related complications. This happens because too few girls and women have access to education and reproductive health services that could save their lives when they give life.

Just as we cannot celebrate true gender equality until every woman has these opportunities, we should also question how some mothers are celebrated while so many millions in the world are not.

Spreading the message: a visit with community healthworkers. Picture: Nicolas Newbold/Every Mother Counts

For those of us who understand the value of having had a mother to teach, nurture and inspire us, or those of us who know how much our own children rely on us to feed, clothe and encourage them each day, just imagine for a moment what our lives would be without this stability.

If we value our mothers, how can we continue to stand by as a global community and allow others to continue to be undervalued? Especially when hundreds of thousands of women die each year due to preventable complications in pregnancy and childbirth.

I've been active in the field of maternal health for eight years now. I keep track easily because the day I decided to engage was the day my daughter was born. I endured a complication after delivering her that was managed by a dedicated team, including competent nurses, a midwife and an obstetrician who backed her when it came to it. They knew what to do and how to save me, and I am still just so grateful that I have the opportunity to see my daughter grow.

Bangladesh: a community gathers to discuss pregnant women's status and needs. Picture: Josh Estey/Every Mother Counts

Just as in my case, many of the deaths and disabilities can be avoided. In fact, as many as 80-90% could be similarly prevented if all women had access to simple, trusted interventions and emergency obstetric care if called for. I've seen programmes in action around the world that are dedicated to reaching the seemingly most 'hard to reach' women with these services and they are saving lives. In fact, UK aid is committed to saving 50,000 women's lives in pregnancy and childbirth, and 250,000 newborn babies' lives by 2015.

On a recent trip to Bangladesh, I visited a rural community in Nashsingdi with DFID, where midwives are being trained to manage many of these cases and ensuring that those who do reach a facility receive the care that will save their lives. UK aid has also committed to supporting nearly a million women to give birth safely in Bangladesh over the next three years and this will make an even greater impact.

I hope that in this month of celebrating women, how far we've come and how much the mothers in our lives mean to us, we will pause long enough to reflect on the need to support our sisters everywhere.

As you celebrate Mothering Sunday this year, please remember that Every Mother Counts.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Please note, this is a guest blog. Views expressed here do not necessarily represent the views of DFID or have the support of the British Government.

Baby Sethy, kept alive in the new neonatal survival unit in Odisha, one of India's poorest states. Picture: Pippa Ranger/DFID

UK aid is changing lives: find out how we’re helping mums to give birth safely and newborns to thrive on our Facebook page.

A Mother’s Day gift: how British doctors are saving lives in Sierra Leone

The Golden Hour – helping India’s infants survive against the odds: see our Flickr gallery