Supermodel talks the pregnancy terror that inspired her

TO CELEBRATE Mother's Day, Women's Way is feting an advocate for moms everywhere, and you'll definitely recognize her face.

Former supermodel Christy Turlington Burns did everything right with her first pregnancy.

She received prenatal care, ate right, exercised. But during her labor, it all went wrong.

Burns did not go into the fourth stage of labor. "There was a lot of blood and it was incredibly painful," Burns told me.

Burns had access to the best care, and she and her daughter, Grace, with actor/director husband Edward Burns, were fine. But Christy could imagine how they wouldn't be. So she started the Every Mother Counts campaign to to end preventable deaths caused by childbirth and pregnancy around the world.

"I meet so many women who are just by themselves," Burns said. "They don't have someone by their sides, they do it alone, they don't know how their body works, they don't choose when to become moms."

Burns will be in Philadelphia tonight to receive the Lucretia Mott Award at Women's Way's Powerful Voice Awards.

"There are 300,000 deaths [resulting from pregnancy] every year. That's about 800 a day," the former cover girl said. "It's the equivalent of a jumbo jet crashing every day. But it's not on the front page of every newspaper."

So how does a mom advocate celebrate Mother's Day herself?

"The beauty of Mother's Day is that I don't have to think about it," Burns said. "I hope to sleep in a little bit and my husband is going away on a business trip that night, so hopefully I can get a run or a yoga class in. That's all I want. I want to spend my weekends like all weekends - spend time with my family and they can celebrate me however they wish."

* In other awards news, Valerie Simpson, of producing and recording duo Ashford & Simpson (you know you're jamming to "Solid as a Rock" right now), will receive the Lifetime Achievement Award from Art Sanctuary on May 31, as part of their month-long Celebration of Black Writing.

Remember Nicholas "Sixx" King? He's the former Sexy Single who walked around Center City in February in full Klu Klux Klan regalia, with a sign saying that black men were killing each other faster than the KKK. He has a documentary on the topic, "Mothers of No Tomorrow," screening tonight at the Mutter Museum. The film looks at what King is passionate about: crime in the African- American community. "Whole generations are being wiped out," King told me.

"Mothers of No Tomorrow," and King's costumed theatrics, brought him to the attention of Essence magazine, which named King a spokesman of their Essence Guns Down initiative, promoting gun control. He's also been deemed the Essence Single Man of the Month.

Producers from Oxygen's "The Bad Girls Club" will be in town on Saturday at McFadden's (461 N. 3rd St.) looking to fill up the next season of bodaciously bad babes. Bring a picture and a photo ID from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Season 5 of the show featured Philly's own Catya Washington, who set the mark very high with her misdoings both off and on camera.

The Broadcast Pioneers of America will celebrate B101's 50th birthday at their next luncheon on May 15. B101 is one of the few independently-owned stations in the country. Station owner Jerry Lee will speak at the event, and Blaise Howard, vice president and general manager, will emcee.

It was a football convocation at Davio's on Tuesday. Former Steelers coach (and Eagle) Bill Cowher, Steelers owner Dan Rooney, longtime quarterback Warren Moon, former Eagles running back/current Baltimore Ravens assistant coach Wilbert Montgomery, former Giants linebacker Pepper Johnson, former 49ers defensive back Ronnie Lott, Eagles GM Howie Roseman and NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell all stopped by the Center City steakhouse.

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