CLIVE, Iowa — Iowa punter Tory Taylor raised $11,000 using his name, image and likeness (NIL) for a nonprofit called "Count the Kicks" that hopes to raise awareness and prevent stillbirths.
KCRG TV9 reports Taylor decided to raise money for the organization after Offensive Coordinator Brian Ferentz's wife Nikki lost their daughter at 21 weeks.
Count the Kicks told Local 5 their work revolves around teaching soon-to-be-moms how to monitor their baby's movement during the third trimester of pregnancy.
The five founders of the nonprofit, all Iowa moms, lost a daughter in the early 2000s to stillbirth or infant death. In 2004, the women worked to create Iowa's Stillbirth Registry to collect data on these tragedies.
"One out of every 169 pregnancies ends in stillbirth. For Black women, one out of every 96 pregnancies ends in stillbirth," said Emily Price with the nonprofit. "It is a maternal health tragedy that should not be happening in 2021."
Price told Local 5 donations do mean a lot for the organization. However, she said she believes the growing awareness about stillbirths will help prevent them.
"The reason why baby's movements are important is because babies are a lot like us in the third trimester. If they're not doing well, their movement is going to change, they're going to become weaker, they're going to move differently," Price said. "And that is a red flag and a warning sign for expectant parents that they need to get to know that that's a red flag and a warning sign and alert their provider if something changes in their baby's movements."
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