BRUSSELS
The United States has been listed as the worst place to be a mother among developed nations, according to a report by Save the Children.
In its annual report released Monday evening, the international NGO Save the Children ranked the best and worst 179 countries in the world to be a mother based on five indicators: children’s health, maternal health, education, economics and political status.
While the U.S. is the world’s largest economy, women face a 1 in 1,800 risk of maternal death - the worst performance of any developed country in the world, according to the report.
With a rate at 7.9 deaths per 1,000, infant mortality is higher in Washington D.C. than in any of the world's 24 wealthiest capital cities, according to the report released a few days before Mother’s Day on May 10.
"A woman in the U.S. is more than 10 times as likely as a woman in Austria, Belarus or Poland to eventually die from a pregnancy-related cause," the report said. The U.S. ranks 33rd overall.
While prematurity was cited as the main cause behind infant deaths, other causes included pervasive poverty, young and uninformed mothers and poor prenatal care, according to the report.
Norway ranked "the best" for mothers
It is not a country’s wealth but the policies put in place that determines happy mothers, according to Save the Children CEO Carolyn Miles.
Norway is ranked the best place to be a mother followed by its Scandinavian neighbors Finland, Iceland, Denmark and Sweden, according to Save the Children.
"Norway performs the absolute 'best' on economic status and is the only country to place in the top 12 on all five indicators," Save the Children said in the report. "It is consistently high performance that puts Norway on top."
Germany ranked eighth, and Australia was the only non-European country to make the top 10 in ninth place. Turkey ranked in 65th place.
Not all countries listed
The reason why Save the Children ranked 179 countries out of the 196 countries in the world was due to insufficient data or the population being below 100,000.
Somalia, of which the economic and educational status are the worst in the world, ranked last, preceded by the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Central African Republic.
In countries such as Bangladesh, Ghana, India, Kenya, Nigeria, Peru, Vietnam and Zimbabwe, poor children are three to five times more likely to die than wealthier ones.
