Skip to content

maternal death

concept · in 79 videos (2015–2026)

Death of women from pregnancy or childbirth; central to the PIH Sierra Leone campaign.

Videos by year: 2015: 2 · 2016: 1 · 2018: 1 · 2019: 7 · 2020: 11 · 2021: 6 · 2022: 12 · 2023: 10 · 2024: 9 · 2025: 12 · 2026: 8

Also known as: maternal mortality, women dying in childbirth, maternal health in Sierra Leone

Threads

Also named in the threads: Vlogbrothers pre-roll ads and the Vlogbrothers Creator Grants (2014) · Awesome Socks Club: monthly sock subscription (2016) · Hank asks viewers to sign up for DFTBA Pin Pals before its limited openings fill (2018) · DFTBA Pin Pals: DFTBA's pin subscription club (2018) · Life's Library book club: launch and first year (2018) · Nerdfighteria revenue (Pizzamas royalties, Life's Library proceeds) redirected to charity (2018) · Maternal Center of Excellence: the brothers' Partners In Health project in Sierra Leone (2019) · John asks viewers to donate to Partners In Health at pih.org/hankandjohn (2019) · John asks viewers to come see the brothers' Minitour in Madison and Minneapolis (2019) · Hank and John's Minitour: live podcasts in Madison and Minneapolis for maternal health in Sierra Leone (2019) · John (with Hank): follow the PIH Sierra Leone project for five years with video, photo and audio updates (2019) · John: the Maternal Center of Excellence will dramatically change the quality of care for women and children in its region (2020) · John: the Maternal Center of Excellence should dramatically accelerate progress in care at Koidu (2020) · John: Partners In Health will break ground on the Maternal Center of Excellence in spring 2021 (2020) · John: at current monthly donation rates, the PIH Sierra Leone project will raise over $15 million in five years (2020) · Hank asks viewers to sign up for, or gift, the 2021 Awesome Socks Club at awesomesocks.club/vlogbrothers before December 11 (2020) · Awesome Coffee Club: the brothers' coffee subscription for charity (2022) · Pizzamas 2022 edition · John asks viewers to buy Pizzamas 2022 merch at pizzamas.com before Pizzamas ends (2022) · John and Hank ask viewers to sign up for the Awesome Socks Club for 2023 (2022) · John asks viewers to buy Sun Basin Soap, whose profit goes to charity (2023) · Good Store: the brothers' store and subscription box at good.store giving all profit to charity (2023) · Sun Basin Soap: the brothers' charity soap subscription made with Botanie (2023) · John asks viewers to pressure Johnson & Johnson to drop its secondary bedaquiline patent (2023) · John asks viewers to press Danaher and Cepheid to cut GeneXpert TB test cartridges to $5 (2023) · Partners In Health's comprehensive TB care project in Lesotho (search, treat, prevent), backed by Keats & Co. (2024) · Hank asks viewers to buy Good Store's Mother's Day bundle (2025) · John: the Maternal Center of Excellence will complete construction in October 2025 and begin opening to patients in January 2026 (2025) · John: the Maternal Center of Excellence will see some 5,000 births a year for decades (2026)

Often together

What comes up in the same parts of the videos; the number is how many parts.

Sierra Leone (86) · child mortality (47) · Koidu Government Hospital (26) · Maternal Center of Excellence (37) · Partners In Health (45) · Awesome Socks Club (26) · Sun Basin Soap (8) · Awesome Coffee Club (10) · tuberculosis (21) · Good Store (13)

What the videos say

The most important statements of each year; all statements.

2015

2016

2018

2019

  • 2019-02-22 · I Don't Want The Same Things Anymore — announcement: Hank: With big goals for maternal health in Liberia with Partners In Health, Hank says DFTBA will give the vast majority of its after-tax profit to PIH for that project, with more information soon. — 00:02:56
  • 2019-07-19 · In Which Hank Consumes the Juice of Over 400 Gushers — announcement: Hank: Pricier tickets include meeting the brothers afterward, and all the tour's money will support the community's work improving maternal health in Sierra Leone. — 00:03:01
  • 2019-08-02 · The Cutest Octopus — announcement: Hank: To raise money for the community's work decreasing maternal mortality in Sierra Leone, DFTBA Pin Pals launches a Bizarre Beasts pin subscription club. — 00:03:05
  • 2019-08-09 · Decluttering the Somewhat Embarrassing Nightstand of a 39 Year-Old Best-Selling Author — ask: Hank: For viewers into enamel pins who want to support the community's work decreasing maternal mortality in Sierra Leone, the Pin Club is open just two more days at $12 a month with free worldwide shipping. — 00:01:48
  • 2019-10-01 · Why Are Poor Countries Poor? — John: Sierra Leone exports $100 million in diamonds annually while 6% of all women die in childbirth. — 00:03:53
    • The hospital is still totally inadequate, with only 40 maternal beds for 550,000 people, but the progress is real. — 00:06:54
    • Nothing about Sierra Leone's poverty is natural or inevitable, so John doesn't think it is permanent; evidence worldwide shows systems can strengthen so more mothers and children survive. — 00:07:52
  • 2019-10-22 · Why We're Donating $6,500,000 — John says Sierra Leone has the highest maternal mortality rate in the world: one in 17 women there will die in pregnancy or childbirth. — 00:00:29
    • John says 3,000 women in Sierra Leone will die in pregnancy or childbirth this year (2019). — 00:02:04
    • John says this is an emergency, but because it has unfolded over many years it receives little attention. — 00:02:55
    • John says that by locating the project in the world's epicentre of maternal death, PIH hopes to show that radically reducing maternal mortality in poor communities is a global imperative, not a pipe dream. — 00:05:13
  • 2019-11-08 · Trolling Through John's YouTube History...GUESS WHAT I FOUND!? — announcement: Hank says all the profits from Pizzamas products are going to improve maternal health in Sierra Leone. — 00:03:40
  • …and 5 statements more in 2019 — all statements of 2019

2020

  • 2020-01-17 · It's Like Shark Tank, but for Charity — announcement: Hank: The catch: if the business succeeds within three years, the $50,000 comes back to promote maternal health in Sierra Leone, and 10% of after-tax income goes to that effort every year. — 00:03:03
  • 2020-01-28 · Looking Away (Again) — John says most mothers who die in childbirth there die for want of an ambulance ride, a blood transfusion or an emergency C-section: these deaths are preventable and have been for decades. — 00:02:20
    • John says he understood in the abstract that Sierra Leone's maternal and child mortality crises were emergencies but had not been treating them like emergencies. — 00:02:50
    • John says the PIH-supported Wellbody Clinic saw zero maternal deaths in 2019, the third year in a row. — 00:03:48
    • John says one in 17 women in Sierra Leone will die in pregnancy or childbirth. — 00:03:48
  • 2020-07-21 · Somebody Once Asked . . . — John explains that the brothers are helping Partners In Health and Sierra Leone's Ministry of Health in a multi-year project to strengthen the healthcare system, focused on maternal mortality. — 00:01:28
  • 2020-10-05 · Thank God It's Over and PIZZAMAS IS HERE!!!!!!! — announcement: John: The Pizzamas items are sold only during this Pizzamas, and all profits and royalties go to charity to reduce child and maternal mortality, plus international COVID relief for a couple of items. — 00:00:29
  • 2020-11-17 · Our Biggest Project Yet: A One Year Update — announcement: John recalls that a year ago they announced a project supporting PIH and Sierra Leone's government in radically reducing maternal mortality, raising $25 million over five years to strengthen Kono's health system. — 00:00:00
    • One out of every 20 women in Sierra Leone can expect to die in pregnancy or childbirth. — 00:00:58
    • Almost all of those deaths are preventable with a strong health system: women die every day for want of an emergency C-section, a blood transfusion or blood pressure medication. — 00:01:27
    • Not long ago the Sierra Leone figure was 1 in 17 women, so maternal death is declining and progress is real, just not fast enough. — 00:07:09
  • 2020-11-27 · Finally Launching this Project!!! — announcement: Hank says shipping is free everywhere with an address and 100% of the profit goes to charity, currently to decrease maternal and child mortality in Sierra Leone. — 00:02:05 · also in: Elon Was Right
  • …and 7 statements more in 2020 — all statements of 2020

2021

  • 2021-04-20 · Breaking Ground!!! — announcement: John: Next week (week of 26 April 2021) Partners In Health and the Sierra Leonean government will officially break ground on the Maternal Center of Excellence and the expansion of Koidu Government Hospital, a huge step against maternal mortality. — 00:00:00
    • In the region the MCOE will serve, one out of every 20 women can expect to die in childbirth. — 00:00:29
  • 2021-10-13 · The Web of Care — Hank: No individual must care about or do everything, from never getting COVID to cutting maternal mortality in Sierra Leone or cooking every meal: we do all of it in a web of care. — 00:02:36
  • 2021-11-05 · We Have Invented Something Marvelous — Hank says every dollar of the club's profit supports the community's work decreasing maternal and child mortality in Sierra Leone. — 00:01:56
  • 2021-12-21 · NOW I AM THE SCIENCE ONE… — John reports big reductions in child and maternal mortality at Koidu Government Hospital over the last year, and far more people using the health system because they feel they can get care. — 00:02:26
    • John asks those able, at year's end, to join the thousands of nerdfighters making monthly or one-time donations to PIH's work to reduce maternal mortality, at pih.org/hankandjohn. — 00:02:55
  • …and 2 statements more in 2021 — all statements of 2021

2022

  • 2022-01-04 · After 15 Years on YouTube, THIS IS THE MOST AMAZING THING — John says that in Kono District at the time, 1 in 17 women died in pregnancy or childbirth. — 00:00:00
    • The PIH-supported Wellbody Clinic, the best in Kono, has the stuff, space, staff, systems and support, and has had no maternal death in over a year. — 00:07:30
  • 2022-02-08 · How Much Money Vlogbrothers Makes from YouTube (...and where it goes) — announcement: John says half the money went to the brothers' Partners In Health project to reduce maternal mortality in Sierra Leone; the rest was split between a Complexly educational fund and a fund for emerging educational creators. — 00:00:58
  • 2022-02-22 · On the Death of My Hero — John: Told nothing could be done about one in 17 Sierra Leonean women dying in pregnancy or childbirth, Farmer said otherwise; so the community came to support PIH's maternal and child care center at Koidu. — 00:02:26
    • Child and maternal mortality are the lowest in human history and health systems are strengthening even in very poor communities, but profound health inequities persist. — 00:02:55
  • 2022-05-17 · Reasons Not to Care — John says one in 20 women in Sierra Leone will die from being pregnant. — 00:00:00
    • System strengthening can radically reduce maternal mortality: as Sierra Leone's health system grows stronger, partly through the community's investments, maternal mortality there fell over 10% in five years. — 00:02:26
  • 2022-07-12 · Nauseous Puddle Water — announcement: John says all of the club's profits, not some or most, are donated to fight maternal and child mortality in impoverished communities. — 00:02:15
  • 2022-09-13 · A Million Things at Once — John says in Kono 1 in 20 women will die in childbirth and 1 in 10 children won't survive to age 5. — 00:02:34
  • 2022-10-11 · Most People Have Never Been 20 — John says Pizzamas raised over $130,000 toward better maternal and child health in impoverished communities. — 00:03:24
  • 2022-11-15 · 3 Years In: What Happened, Why, and What's Next — John says the community, working with Partners In Health, is now on pace to raise over $35 million in the first five years of the project to radically reduce maternal mortality in Sierra Leone. — 00:00:00
    • John says that in 2019 one in 17 women in Sierra Leone could expect to die in pregnancy or childbirth. — 00:00:29
  • …and 16 statements more in 2022 — all statements of 2022

2023

  • 2023-01-24 · Behind the Scenes of my TUMBLR MEME LORD ERA — John says the Awesome Coffee Club, with its cousin the Awesome Socks Club, is a really important part of ongoing funding to fight maternal mortality in Sierra Leone. — 00:00:29
  • 2023-05-02 · GOOD NEWS — John: Kono was the epicenter of the world's maternal mortality crisis, with 1 in 17 women dying in childbirth or pregnancy. — 00:00:58
    • In Kono both maternal and child mortality have since declined dramatically. — 00:00:58
  • 2023-06-13 · touched by a king — ask: John's comment says the Awesome Socks Club has reopened and urges viewers to get Awesome Coffee Club coffee, whose profits all fight maternal and child mortality in Sierra Leone. — creator comment
  • 2023-06-20 · Reflections from a Terrible CEO — John says they are working, in small and insufficient ways, on the injustices of high US college costs and high global maternal mortality. — 00:04:08
  • 2023-08-01 · Three Mornings — John says the Awesome Coffee Club donates 100% of profit to charity; Awesome Coffee, Awesome Socks and Sun Basin Soap have donated over $5 million in three years to fight maternal and infant mortality in Sierra Leone. — 00:05:20
  • 2023-08-22 · The Panera Phenomenon — ask: The description invites viewers to support the community's efforts to radically reduce maternal mortality in Sierra Leone at pih.org/hankandjohn. — video description
  • 2023-08-29 · Breaking News: CEO Demoted — John says the clubs donate 100% of their profit to charity and have so far raised over $5 million for better child and maternal health in Sierra Leone. — 00:00:00
  • 2023-09-22 · A Feeling I've Never Felt Before — Hank reminds viewers that all Pizzamas profit goes to decreasing maternal and child mortality in Sierra Leone. — 00:04:56
  • 2023-11-03 · We Need to talk about Sarapocial Relationships — Hank: By capable Hank means the community can act for itself and the world, from TB access to Crash Course, SciShow and the clubs funding maternal health in Sierra Leone; membership should feel valuable. — 00:03:57
  • 2023-12-01 · It's OK if you think less of me after this! — Hank says John gave him a motivation: promise to raise $25 million for a hospital in Sierra Leone without knowing how, which excites him in a way making money for himself did not. — 00:03:15
    • Hank says 1 in 17 women in Sierra Leone die in childbirth. — 00:03:15

2024

  • 2024-03-12 · How We End TB — John says that work is hard, as seen in the fight against maternal mortality in Sierra Leone, but results are huge: maternal mortality there has halved since 2019. — 00:03:50
  • 2024-03-19 · Our $80,000,000 Bet — John says that on maternal mortality in Sierra Leone or the global TB crisis, he is astonished by what Nerdfighteria has done by orienting attention and resources in the same direction, and is grateful. — 00:04:23
  • 2024-05-28 · A Midlife Crisis — John says his other work feels extremely urgent because it involves many people's livelihoods and, with tuberculosis and maternal and infant mortality, many people's lives. — 00:02:55
  • 2024-06-18 · The Tea — John: Altogether they helped raise over $40 million for the project, and maternal mortality in Sierra Leone has already fallen by more than 50% since 2019, saving thousands of lives. — 00:01:27
    • John doesn't want to undermine the Sierra Leone maternal work, but PIH calls comprehensive TB care the next big thing in global health equity. — 00:05:21
    • John has seen the community's power in reducing maternal mortality in Sierra Leone and driving down TB drug and test prices: never underestimate Nerdfighteria. — 00:05:45
  • 2024-10-30 · Sipping the Tea with Hank — John says all money Good Store makes goes either to stronger maternal and infant care in Sierra Leone or to better tuberculosis care in Lesotho. — 00:02:27
    • John says Good Store has donated over $8 million to support stronger maternal health and tuberculosis care. — 00:36:58
  • 2024-11-19 · Let's Talk about Money — John: This year (2024) alone the socks have raised over $759,000 for the maternal and child health care project, John says, an amazing number though down from last year (2023). — 00:01:27
  • 2024-11-26 · Good News — John: Sierra Leone's maternal death rate is now 443 per 100,000 births. — 00:02:22
    • Sierra Leone's maternal death rate is still far too high, about 100 times too high, but down about 60% in seven years. — 00:02:26
    • In Kono, the district where Partners In Health began working in 2019, maternal mortality has fallen further: Koidu Government Hospital has seen a reduction close to 80% since 2019. — 00:02:40
  • …and 12 statements more in 2024 — all statements of 2024

2025

  • 2025-05-13 · I Have the BEST News — John says that in 2019 the latest statistics showed one in 17 women in Sierra Leone dying in pregnancy or childbirth. — 00:00:29
    • John says, thanks to the government and groups like PIH, Sierra Leone's lifetime maternal death risk fell from 1 in 17 to around 1 in 74, an over 60% reduction, though still too high. — 00:01:27
    • John says we solve the problems we pay attention to: long-term, open-ended attention can address long-term crises, from 1 in 17 to 1 in 74, and they are just getting started. — 00:05:30
  • 2025-05-16 · No One Knows When They Don't Die — Hank says the community's work in Sierra Leone means fewer women are already dying in childbirth, a very quiet victory. — 00:02:26
    • Hank says 3,000 women trapped in a fallen building would cause outcry, but 30,000 women each with a 10% chance of dying in childbirth, the same deaths, are not seen as the same catastrophe or rescue. — 00:02:26
  • 2025-08-08 · I'm Glad I Ignored That Billionaire — announcement: John says all the profit goes to reducing maternal mortality in Sierra Leone and beyond, which he calls pretty special. — 00:04:12
  • 2025-10-01 · Real Reasons for Hope — John says that in Sierra Leone over the same period maternal mortality has dropped by over 60%. — 00:03:24
    • John says the hospital now has all of that and much more, and as a result maternal mortality there has declined precipitously. — 00:03:53
    • John says maternal mortality at the hospital will decline further with the opening next month (November 2025) of the Maternal Center of Excellence there. — 00:03:53
    • John tells viewers who bought a Pizzamas shirt, donated monthly to Partners In Health or encouraged others to care about maternal mortality that they played a role in this story. — 00:03:53
  • 2025-11-11 · John's Annual Psychophysical Decline — John calls the MCOE a statement of intent: the long-term, open-ended problems of maternal and child mortality in Kono are being met by long-term, open-ended support from the community. — 00:01:37
    • John says Good Store, another way to support Partners In Health and the Coral Reef Alliance, raised about $10 million over the last five years to fight maternal and child mortality in Sierra Leone. — 00:03:04
  • …and 10 statements more in 2025 — all statements of 2025

2026

  • 2026-02-14 · Project for Awesome 2026 part 4! — John says nobody deserves to die in childbirth, and cutting maternal mortality also makes children likelier to go to school and be healthy, raising the health of a whole community. — 00:06:26
  • 2026-02-15 · Project for Awesome 2026 part 5! — John says that since Sierra Leone's government took on maternal health as a priority, the share of women dying in pregnancy or childbirth has fallen from one in 17 or one in 20 to closer to one in 80. — 04:10:30
    • John says maternal deaths in Sierra Leone are still much too high, but have fallen 75% in seven years, and will keep going down because of these investments. — 04:10:59
    • John says the work in Sierra Leone is a blueprint for the rest of the world: if better maternal care is possible in the epicenter of the maternal death crisis, it is possible anywhere. — 04:10:59
  • 2026-02-24 · Risk Is a Privilege — John says the reluctance to invest in impoverished communities is the main reason maternal and child mortality were so high in Sierra Leone. — 00:02:55
    • John says more than one in 10 children in Sierra Leone died before age five and more than one in 20 women died in pregnancy or childbirth. — 00:03:24
  • 2026-04-14 · Babies. Babies. Babies. — John says just 20 years ago Sierra Leone was the deadliest place in the world to give birth: mothers died of hemorrhage, preeclampsia and above all lack of safe emergency C-sections. — 00:00:29
    • John says that is no longer the case: Sierra Leone's maternal mortality rate has dropped by 78%. — 00:00:58
    • John says mothers and children who could have died now survive every week in Kono, and the community has played a small but significant role. — 00:03:24
  • 2026-04-28 · What I Can't Show You — John: In the NICU John saw babies who months ago would have had a very low chance of survival and will now lead long, productive lives. — 00:02:55
    • John says 500 babies were born at the MCOE in its first six weeks of operation, including over 200 C-sections, many of them emergencies that might otherwise have meant maternal and child death. — 00:05:37
  • 2026-09-08 · The Life Expectancy Lies That Won't Die — John says human health has improved tremendously thanks to clean water, sewers, vaccines and antibiotics, benefiting young children and pregnant women most, but all humans. — 00:04:52
  • …and 6 statements more in 2026 — all statements of 2026