Christy Turlington Burns has founded an organization called Every Mother Counts. The issue this organization focuses on is global maternal mortality, and the lack of accesible care for pregnant women.  It’s a worthy organization, one I support, but one that is guilty of having its latest campaign suck.

The latest campaign is called “No Mothers Day”.  It calls for mothers to “disappear” for Mothers Day.  That means accepting no phone calls, not updating their social networking statuses, and accepting no gifts or flowers.  The idea is to “underscore just how missed a mother is when she is gone”.

Christy Turlington Burns has put together a video of very high profile moms calling for other moms to join in silent solidarity and say no to Mothers Day.

I just cannot cannot cannot do it.

Though I admire many of those mothers, I am not like many of the moms on the video.  I don’t have staff that comes in and helps clean my kitchen.  I don’t have a nanny to take one kid while I struggle to get the baby to sleep.  I don’t even have family nearby to watch the children for a couple hours so I can get a haircut.

Mothers Day is the one day I hope above hopes that I will get to kick back, pseudo-relax, and get a nice present in exchange for 364 days of indentured servitude.  At this point in my life, I have given up my career to be a stay at home mom, at least until our youngest is old enough for school.  My days are filled with wiping butts, scrubbing floors, cooking meals, doing dishes, and other endless chores – all while holding a baby.  I don’t get paid to do these things.  Most of the time I don’t even get a thank you.

I love Mothers Day.

I don’t want to be silent on Mothers Day.

I want to roar on Mothers Day, “Look at me!  I’m a mother!  I finally know how to love someone else more than I could ever love myself.  Because of that, I have a habit of putting myself last, and I need this one day to be told how much what I do means.  Cook me breakfast.  Tell me how much you love me.  Make me cry with a stinking hand made card!”

So, to the campaign No Mothers Day – I say, no way.

I understand what Christy is attempting to do.  I’m sure the idea to remove mothers from Mothers Day in honor of women who don’t survive to be mothers seemed like a powerful one.  The women in the video are expressing the idea that  ”our silence will speak the loudest, for all mothers.”  That sounds pithy enough, but I always believe that silence can never raise as much awareness as speaking out.  The statistics on maternal mortality in some countries are staggering.  So lets spread the word and still celebrate the mothers who are alive and well.

One thousand mothers will die this Mothers Day due to pregnancy or birth related complications. That demands attention for sure.  Women all over the world are dying because they are “about to become mothers”.

I did become one.

I am lucky for it.

It’s the hardest and best thing I ever did.

There is a day that celebrates it.

I refuse to give it up.