100% MOM, A POWERPOINT POEM ABOUT WOMEN AND LABOR. 1. Moms are 5 times more likely to die giving birth in the US than moms in other 'equally developed' lands. 2. Some of these moms we can't save, but most, we can.
from POWER POINT (Sheila-Na-Gig Editions, 2024)
winner, 2025 National Press Women Communications Prize
Buy→ Amazon · Sheila-Na-Gig
100% MOM, A POWERPOINT POEM ABOUT WOMEN AND LABOR. 1. Moms are 5 times more likely to die giving birth in the US than moms in other 'equally developed' lands. 2. Some of these moms we can't save, but most, we can.
The underlying datasets behind the poem. The poem was built from real CDC, UN, Commonwealth Fund, and ILO data.
This poem also has a fully animated, interactive version →
Data year: 2020
| Country | Deaths per 100,000 live births | |
|---|---|---|
| Norway | 2 | |
| Germany | 4 | |
| Netherlands | 3 | |
| Sweden | 5 | |
| Australia | 3 | |
| Canada | 8 | |
| France | 8 | |
| UK | 10 | |
| United States | 24 |
Source: Commonwealth Fund, "The U.S. Maternal Mortality Crisis Continues to Worsen: An International Comparison," 2022.
Updated 2022 US rate: 22.3 per 100,000 — still highest among peer nations.
Data year: 2022
| Category | Share of US pregnancy-related deaths | |
|---|---|---|
| Preventable | 84% | |
| Not preventable | 16% |
Source: "Most pregnancy-related deaths are preventable," Hear Her Campaign, CDC, 2022.
Data year: 2022
| Race / Ethnicity | Deaths per 100,000 live births | |
|---|---|---|
| Hispanic | 16.9 | |
| White | 19.6 | |
| American Indian / Alaska Native | 32.5 | |
| Black | 49.5 |
Source: CDC, Maternal Mortality Rates in the United States, 2022 (published 2024).
Updated from 2020 figures cited in the poem (Black: 55.3, White: 19.1, Hispanic: 18.2). Black mothers remain most at risk by a wide margin.
Data year: 2022
| Category | % Women | % Men | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Unpaid Labor Hours | 75% | 25% | |
| Low-wage Workers | 60% | 40% | |
| Senior Management | 28% | 72% |
Source: ILO, "Women Work More, But Are Still Paid Less," 2022; UN, "The World's Women 2020 Trends and Statistics."
About This Poem
'100% Mom' renders real-world statistics on maternal mortality, unpaid labor, and workforce inequality into letters through charts created in Microsoft PowerPoint. The visual staging of the poem echoes a scientific paper, with boxed and numbered text explicating the data. The simple, almost childlike rhyme scheme and musicality of the text is juxtaposed with the stark statistics. The "Pepto-bismol" pink of the large word MOM provides additional dissonance with the subject matter, calling attention to the perceived acceptance of a chilling status quo. 100% MOM won first place in the creative verse single poem category of the 2025 National Federation of Press Women Communications Contest and was nominated for Best of the Net. It was first published in Whale Road Review.
Data Sources