It's a few days after CARE's national conference and with so much that happened on the maternal health front, CARE thought I should start a blog. I'm still exhausted from the conference and hope I don't regret trying to articulate all that's happened.

Here's how the week played out. On Tuesday morning, CARE's Maternal Health Advocate, Christy Turlington Burns joined Rep. Lois Capps at a press conference announcing the introduction of her Global MOMS Act — the first-ever comprehensive global maternal health legislation that will elevate U.S. assistance in maternal and newborn health and help to save millions of lives. When Christy starts talking about her own complications during the birth of her daughter you know she's heavily invested in the issue of improving maternal health. I need to figure out how to get her into every Congressional office I can …

Later that afternoon, Christy screened her new documentary film, No Woman, No Cry, for our conference participants – the only other audience to have seen her film after its debut at the Tribeca Film Festival. She joined Helene and Rep. Capps to watch the film – she told me she wanted to see the reaction among real advocates – before the three of them took the stage for a brief Q&A. I wished we'd had more time to talk about the film – it really illuminates the importance of family planning and maternal health and we needed another half-hour to talk about why that's important. I left feeling like some may have had more questions. If you saw the film and panel and have more questions or comments, feel free to post them here.

On Wednesday morning at 7:30 a.m., I joined a group from western Massachusetts – including my mom! – for some bad coffee before heading to the Capitol to start our lobby day. I wasn't sure how well I'd prepared the group for how to talk about the issue of maternal health until the first meeting when a college student rattled off CARE's talking points with the ease of a seasoned lobbyist. As a former Congressional staffer, I was disappointed by the way our group was received by staff. I knew what my group had sacrificed – all eight in my group had taken at least two days off of work or school and paid their way to D.C. – and wanted others to be impressed by their knowledge of the issue. So I was grateful to the Senate staffer who sent me an e-mail immediately following our last meeting and said, "It was a pleasure to meet with your group today. Keep up the great work!" My group was so happy to think that they had impressed a young man who they found as equally impressive.

I've been fielding e-mails since the conference ended about members of Congress who want to support the Global MOMS Act. And I'm motivated, despite my exhaustion, by the point Secretary Clinton made in her remarks on Tuesday: "These [maternal] deaths are intolerable because they are preventable."

Watch highlights of Sec. Clinton's speech and those of other notable conference guests at: www.careconference.org/videos.asp