Healthy Birth Day Inc.

At Healthy Birth Day, Inc. our mission is to improve birth outcomes through our stillbirth prevention campaign Count the Kicks.

Healthy Birth Day, Inc. was founded by five Iowa moms who all endured the heartache of losing a daughter to stillbirth or infant death in the early 2000s. After being connected through friends and pastors, a strong bond quickly formed between Jan Caruthers, Janet Petersen, Kate Safris, Kerry Biondi-Morlan and Tiffan Yamen. During many conversations over coffee, the women decided to channel their grief into stillbirth prevention efforts to keep other families from facing the pain of losing a baby. A few years later, the women learned about public health research in Norway that demonstrated a 30 percent reduction in stillbirth by teaching pregnant women how to monitor fetal movement during the third trimester of pregnancy by doing kick counts on a daily basis. The women had found their next project and decided that even if it saved just one baby it would be worthwhile. The evidence-based public health awareness campaign, Count the Kicks, was born in 2008.

The next year, the women created Healthy Birth Day, Inc., a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization based in Des Moines, Iowa, as a way to help fund efforts to spread the Count the Kicks message. Iowa’s stillbirth rate decreased by 32% during the first 10 years of the Count the Kicks campaign. Our goal is to replicate Iowa's success and help save 7,500 babies in the U.S. every year by expanding Count the Kicks. We currently are partnered with 31 different state health agencies to provide free or low-cost resources nationwide with the goal of expanding into all 50 states.

Through years of outreach and education, the babies we have helped save still inspire us the most!

Organizational Values

*Be Courageous.

Healthy Birth Day, Inc., was founded on the belief that stillbirths and poor birth outcomes can be preventable. By providing stillbirth prevention education and resources, we improve care and empower expectant parents to advocate for themselves and their baby. We will bravely push for systemic change, speak truth to power, and not shy away from difficult conversations, meetings and decisions.

*Share the Cause.

Healthy Birth Day, Inc., believes knowledge is power. When we make the world a safer place for reproductive and maternal health care, everyone wins. The job is urgent and bigger than any one person or organization. Sharing the work, lifting up voices, and being inclusive matters. We will actively recruit and connect with allies to teach and learn prevention strategies and break down systemic maternal and reproductive health care barriers and biases.

*Celebrate Progress.

The five grieving moms who founded Healthy Birth Day, Inc., wanted to make this world a safer place to have a baby, and as we continue to grow as the country’s leading stillbirth prevention organization, we maintain a deep commitment to their original principles: placing high value on research and data, asking for help and building authentic relationships, and leading with trustworthy actions. We will take time to celebrate successes, both big and small, knowing each one may inspire or motivate another person to connect to our cause, turning their grief into fuel, shame into hope, or energy into action.

Healthy Birth Day, Inc. is focused on the implementation of Count the Kicks, which is a stillbirth prevention public health campaign that encourages expectant parents to track their baby’s movements daily during the third trimester of pregnancy and contact their healthcare provider right away if there is a change in what’s normal for their baby.

Approximately 23,500 babies are lost to stillbirth in the U.S. each year. Statistically, that means 1 out of every 169 pregnancies ends in stillbirth. For African American moms, that number is even more alarming – 1 in 96! Count the Kicks is committed to preventing stillbirth and eliminating disparities.

Research shows kick counting, keeping a daily record of a baby’s movements during the third trimester, is an easy, free and reliable way to monitor a baby’s well-being in addition to regular prenatal visits. One out of every three stillbirths could be prevented with fetal movement monitoring; therefore, our goal is to make kick counting a common practice in the third trimester by reaching as many providers and expectant parents as possible.

Count the Kicks offers a suite of resources to help maternal healthcare professionals educate expectant parents about fetal movement monitoring and also a suite of videos, guides, and resources to help expectant parents get their baby here safely.

1.) Count the Kicks has educational posters, brochures, and app reminder cards available to order in multiple languages.

2.) Free Count the Kicks App is available in the iOS and Google Play app stores that provides expectant moms a simple, non-invasive way to have and track a kick counting session each day in the third trimester as an important way to monitor a baby’s health and get to know what’s normal for them. The App is available in 16 languages and its features include a kick-counting history, daily reminders and the ability to count for single babies and twins.

3.) We also have a suite of resources for both maternal health professionals and expectant moms on our website in the Parent Academy and Provider Academy.