Best and Worst Place to be a Mother
Save the Children has released it’s 9th Mother’s Day Report Card: The Best and Worst Countries to Be a Mother, this year’s list leaves Sweden as the best place for motherhood and Niger as the worst. The United States Ranked 27th out of 146 countries.
“A mother’s well-being is connected to her children’s well-being,” said Charles MacCormack, president and CEO of Save the Children. “It is not surprising, then, that in the worst places to be a mom, both women and children die young. There is a great divide between the status of mothers’ health and well-being in rich and poor countries. In rich nations, where women have access to basic health care, giving birth is usually a time of joy. But in poor countries, where there is little or no access to skilled health workers, it is typically tragic. Every woman in the 10 worst countries is likely to suffer the unbearable loss of a child in her lifetime,” added MacCormack
The Report Card is based off of findings in the 2008 State of the World’s Mothers Report, which highlights that some 200 million children under 5 years old around the world do not receive basic healthcare. These neglected children are in the world poorest countries, and the international aid that is directed at the problem is severely lacking in comparison with the need. Save the Children estimates that closing this gap in healthcare need would save some 6 million children each year.