Pregnant women who are at risk for suffering complications and even death are in the prime of their lives. The most affected populations are minorities, Native Americans, immigrants, and women living in poverty and who speak little or no English.

Like my sister, 981 women die every day on Earth from pregnancy and birth-related complications.

My sister had health insurance; she should have been warned by her doctors that she was at risk. But she was a minority. The doctors took little interest in her as an individual, and she fell through the cracks. And died.

Pregnant women who are at risk for suffering complications and even death are in the prime of their lives. The most affected populations are minorities, Native Americans, immigrants, and women living in poverty and who speak little or no English.

I cry when I work in the garden, because the Sun, the rain, the wind and the Earth all work together to make us food and flowers. It just blows me away.

I learned that a healthy society is made up of loving, trusting individuals, and that these individuals in turn protect their environment, become stewards of our land, air and water, and they make peace, rather than war.

Birthing is the most profound initiation to spirituality a woman can have.