Frequently Asked Questions

Every Woman Counts is an annu­al fundrais­ing event that ben­e­fits Healthy Birth Day, Inc., the 501(c)(3) non­prof­it orga­ni­za­tion that cre­at­ed the Count the Kicks pub­lic health cam­paign. Each year our event fea­tures engag­ing and moti­va­tion­al speak­ers to pro­vide a pow­er­ful and uplift­ing event. Dur­ing the event we cel­e­brate the life-sav­ing impact donors like you have on our mis­sion. We promise to offer the real-life sto­ry­telling that has become a trade­mark of this event.

We are so excit­ed to be back in the ball­room for the first time since 2019! For the past two years our vir­tu­al event has allowed us to reach more peo­ple and include more advo­cates and sup­port­ers of our mis­sion from all over the world. This orga­ni­za­tion has health part­ner­ships in 15 states and Ambas­sadors in 32 states and two oth­er coun­tries. We want to share this event and our Count the Kicks cam­paign with every­one no mat­ter where they live!

Healthy Birth Day, Inc. and pre­sent­ing spon­sor Mer­cy­One place a high pri­or­i­ty on the health and safe­ty of our guests. There will be some form of COVID-19 mit­i­ga­tion in place dur­ing the in-per­son lunch. Because it is an evolv­ing health issue, we will announce spe­cif­ic mit­i­ga­tion efforts clos­er to the event date and will alert guests in advance.

1. In-Per­son: Pur­chase a sin­gle tick­et (or mul­ti­ple tick­ets) to attend the event in-person
2. Vir­tu­al: Pur­chase a sin­gle tick­et (or mul­ti­ple tick­ets) to attend the event vir­tu­al­ly wher­ev­er you choose
3. Table Cap­tain: Some­one who wants to host a table of 10 inside the ballroom.
4. Vir­tu­al Watch Par­ty: Some­one who wants to host a watch par­ty inside their home or busi­ness (includes 10 T‑shirts and a link to watch the live event).
5. Peer-to-Peer Fundrais­er: Some­one who wants to attend AND wants to help sup­port our mis­sion by rais­ing addi­tion­al funds through peer-to-peer fundrais­ing. We make it easy for you! Cre­ate a sim­ple fundrais­ing page (or use the one we cre­at­ed for you) and share it with friends!
6. Spon­sor: Your orga­ni­za­tion has agreed to spon­sor the Every Woman Counts event and you have been giv­en a unique link to reg­is­ter for our event.

When reg­is­ter­ing as a Table Cap­tain you agree to attend in-per­son and pur­chase one table for you and 9 guests for a $750 dona­tion. After you have com­plet­ed the reg­is­tra­tion process, you will receive an email con­fir­ma­tion with a unique link. You can email or text this link to your 9 guests, and they will use it to reg­is­ter them­selves, choose their T‑shirt size, enter their ship­ping address and name any dietary restric­tions. The link is unique to your table and can only be used by the peo­ple you send it to. You will be noti­fied via email as each guest reg­is­ters. This will make it easy for you to keep track of any remain­ing seats or of those who for­get to reg­is­ter. Your guests will not be charged, and you can­not exchange mon­ey through this site. If you plan to col­lect seat fees from your guests, you will need to per­son­al­ly col­lect those funds.

When reg­is­ter­ing as a Vir­tu­al Watch Par­ty Host you agree to attend vir­tu­al­ly and pur­chase a house par­ty tick­et for you and 9 guests for a $750 dona­tion. After you have com­plet­ed the reg­is­tra­tion process, you will receive an email con­fir­ma­tion with a unique link. You can email or text this link to your 9 guests, and they will use it to reg­is­ter them­selves, choose their T‑shirt size and enter their ship­ping address. That link is unique to your watch par­ty and can only be used by the peo­ple you send it to. Your guests will not be charged, and you can­not exchange mon­ey through this site. As a Vir­tu­al Watch Par­ty Host, you will receive pho­to booth props and dig­i­tal print­outs to dec­o­rate with.

When reg­is­ter­ing as a Peer-to-Peer Fundrais­er you agree to attend vir­tu­al­ly or in per­son and reg­is­ter to set up a peer-to-peer fundrais­ing page which enables you to fundraise for Count the Kicks on social media and through text and email amongst your friends, fam­i­ly, and co-work­ers. After you have com­plet­ed the reg­is­tra­tion process, you will receive an email con­fir­ma­tion with a link to set up an account for your own fundrais­ing page. The page is ready to go, but you can cus­tomize it to share your per­son­al con­nec­tion to our mis­sion if you choose. You will be all set to fundraise through Face­book, Twit­ter and even text-to-give (Text the key­word COURA­GEOUS to 50155). All dona­tions will be cred­it­ed to your cam­paign and all pro­ceeds ben­e­fit Count the Kicks.

*Note: All reg­is­tra­tion types will be giv­en a link to reg­is­ter to cre­ate a peer-to-peer fundrais­er on behalf of Count the Kicks through the cus­tomized plat­form we have set up for you. There is no oblig­a­tion to do so, but you can opt in by click­ing the link in your con­fir­ma­tion email and reg­is­ter­ing for your own fundrais­ing page to share with friends and family.

In your con­fir­ma­tion email you will be prompt­ed to cre­ate a pass­word. This pass­word is required to access con­tent on the event site. Only those who have com­plet­ed the reg­is­tra­tion process will be able to log in and access infor­ma­tion on the event plat­form. Once you are logged in you will be able to hon­or a loved and missed baby on the In Mem­o­ry page, view silent auc­tion pack­ages, share what this mis­sion means to you, and con­nect with oth­er event attendees.

The cut-off date to attend in per­son is 10 a.m. CST Tues­day, April 19, 2022 The cut-off date to attend vir­tu­al­ly is 5 p.m. CST Mon­day, April 25, 2022

Reg­is­ter and pur­chase a vir­tu­al tick­et at CountTheKicks.Live. Fol­low the steps in your con­fir­ma­tion email to cre­ate a pass­word to access the event site. On the day of the event, you will go to CountTheKicks.Live and be asked to enter the email and pass­word you used to reg­is­ter for the event. You may login as ear­ly as 11 a.m. CST on April 26 with pre-event footage begin­ning around that time. The offi­cial pro­gram will begin at 11:30 a.m. CST.

With a pur­chased tick­et you will have access to a record­ed link for one week. You are wel­come to watch the event when­ev­er it fits into your sched­ule. (And, yes, you can watch it mul­ti­ple times if you would like.)

Every reg­is­tered attendee will receive this super soft, exclu­sive Count the Kicks T‑shirt designed by Ray­gun. You will be asked for your T‑shirt size and ship­ping address dur­ing the reg­is­tra­tion process. Your shirt will be shipped to you with­in 14 days of registration.

Any indi­vid­ual, Table Cap­tain, Peer-to-Peer Fundrais­er, or Vir­tu­al Watch Par­ty Host who pur­chas­es an event tick­et at $75 or greater by April 25 at 10 a.m. CST is eli­gi­ble to receive an event T‑shirt that will be shipped to you. Indi­vid­u­als who would like to pur­chase extra T‑shirts can do so on the day of the event at the Iowa Event cen­ter (lim­it­ed sizes and quan­ti­ties avail­able). Our part­ners at Ray­gun have cre­at­ed the T‑shirts and oth­er Count the Kicks items, which you can find on their web­store. You can find mer­chan­dise here on the event plat­form when you log back in after reg­is­ter­ing. Items will be mailed to you.

The soon­er you reg­is­ter, the soon­er you will get your shirt.  Shirts will be mailed from Des Moines, Iowa, with­in 2 weeks of your reg­is­tra­tion date.

After reg­is­ter­ing for the event, log into the event site CountTheKicks.Live and click on Silent Auc­tion. Scroll through the dif­fer­ent prize options and click the prize you would like to bid on. You’ll be tak­en to a web­form page where you will need to set up an account with con­tact and cred­it card infor­ma­tion to start the bid­ding process. The site is self-explana­to­ry from there. Con­tact Colleen Dougher­ty at dougherty.​colleen@​healthybirthday.​org if you have any ques­tions about the silent auc­tion. Bid­ding will close at 6:00 p.m. CST on Tues­day, April 26.

YES! We have many dif­fer­ent lev­els of spon­sor­ship to fit every bud­get with lots of ben­e­fits to our spon­sors. Please email our Exec­u­tive Direc­tor Emi­ly Price at price.​emily@​healthybirthday.​org or our Annu­al Giv­ing & Events Coor­di­na­tor Colleen Dougher­ty at dougherty.​colleen@​healthybirthday.​org to become a sponsor.

Count the Kicks is an evi­dence-based still­birth pre­ven­tion and aware­ness cam­paign that teach­es expec­tant par­ents the method for, and impor­tance of, track­ing fetal move­ment dai­ly dur­ing the third trimester of pregnancy. 

Each year in the U.S. 23,500 babies are born still. One in every 169 preg­nan­cies ends in still­birth, mak­ing it 10 times more com­mon than SIDS. Accord­ing to the CDC, a Black woman is more than twice as like­ly to lose her baby to still­birth (1 in 96 preg­nan­cies) than her white neigh­bor, col­league, or friend. Research shows that a change in move­ment is some­times the only indi­ca­tion that a baby is in dis­tress and needs to be checked by your doctor.

Dur­ing the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic it is espe­cial­ly impor­tant for expec­tant par­ents to under­stand the impor­tance of kick count­ing in the third trimester. We rec­og­nize there may be changes to reg­u­lar­ly sched­uled pre­na­tal vis­its and an increase in tele­health appoint­ments, which means expect­ing par­ents may not see their provider in per­son as often. By using the FREE Count the Kicks app dai­ly start­ing at 28 weeks, expec­tant par­ents will have the peace of mind to know when things are OK and when things have changed, empow­er­ing them to con­tact their provider. Kick count­ing is a free, easy-to-use way for par­ents to mon­i­tor their baby’s well-being at home.

The Count the Kicks app is avail­able in the Google Play and iTunes app stores and has been down­loaded more than 180,000 times by expec­tant par­ents in all 50 states. It’s an easy-to-use tool for expec­tant par­ents to mon­i­tor their baby’s well-being in addi­tion to reg­u­lar pre­na­tal visits.

Through the Count the Kicks cam­paign there is a com­mu­ni­ty of expec­tant par­ents who are in tune with their bod­ies and their babies, let­ting providers know when some­thing feels off. Time and time again this sys­tem works — and babies are being saved across the coun­try. In the first 10 years of our cam­paign in Iowa, the state’s still­birth rate has decreased near­ly 32 per­cent while the rest of the coun­try remained stag­nant. If we were to repli­cate the suc­cess we have expe­ri­enced in Iowa, we could save 7,500 babies every year in the Unit­ed States.

All pro­ceeds from Every Woman Counts will be used to direct­ly impact our mis­sion to pre­vent still­birth and save babies by pro­vid­ing the Count the Kicks edu­ca­tion and resources to as many expec­tant par­ents and providers as pos­si­ble. This event helps keep the Count the Kicks app FREE for all expec­tant par­ents and allows us to raise aware­ness on social media, via webi­na­rs and in pre­sen­ta­tions. Healthy Birth Day, Inc. is the 501(3)© non-prof­it respon­si­ble for the Count the Kicks cam­paign. Learn more at www​.count​the​kicks​.org and www​.healthy​birth​day​.org.

Con­tact Colleen Dougher­ty at dougherty.​colleen@​healthybirthday.​org