Our story
How does a small group of people from vastly different backgrounds come together to help women
survive childbirth?
Sometimes a picture is so powerful you cannot walk away.
In 2010, Australian obstetrician Steve Robson was flying home from a conference reading Time Magazine. He was drawn to a pictorial essay by international human rights photographer Lynsey Addario on the death of 18-year-old Mamma Seesay while she gave birth to twins in Sierra Leone.
Professor Robson was shocked at the continuing toll of preventable death during childbirth in countries where women have little to no access to midwives, doctors or even sanitary places in which to give birth. He decided to do something.
Each day on his hospital rounds, he watched new mothers receive bunches of flowers – flowers which were usually discarded when mother and baby went home.
What if the money spent on a bunch of flowers could go towards helping more women around the world give
birth safely?
Professor Robson gathered together a small group of like-minded people – all working in a range of fields but eager to put their skills to the cause of reducing maternal deaths.
Send Hope Not Flowers was born.