NEW YORK — The best place in the world to be a mom is Norway, where maternal and child mortality rates are low, women’s life expectancy and years in school are high, and the average maternity leave is about one year, a new study measuring the well-being of mothers and babies shows.
Australia and Iceland join Norway at the top of Save the Children’s 12th annual Mothers Index, released Tuesday. Afghanistan comes in last, and the United States places 31st.
Released every year in the days before Mother’s Day, the international nonprofit group’s ranking analyzes the maternal and child indicators and other published information of 164 countries.
The survey noted that the United States came in at 31 mainly because its maternal mortality rate of 1 in 2,100 is among the highest of any industrialized nation.
As a result, a woman in the U.S. is seven times more likely than one in Italy or Ireland to die from pregnancy-related causes, and her risk of maternal death is 15 times that of a woman in Greece.
The United States also does not do as well as most other developed countries when it comes to mortality of children 5 and under. Eight of every 1,000 children born […]
