A new report by a global children’s rights group shows that the well-being of childbearing women in the United States is on the decline.
The annual “Mothers’ Index,” published by Fairfield-based Save the Children, reveals the best and worst places to be a mom. The U.S. fell two spots from last year, coming in at 33 out of 179 surveyed countries.
Norway was ranked number one; Somalia fared the worst.
According to the report, one out of 1,800 women in the U.S. will die as a result of pregnancy or childbirth. That makes American mothers more likely to die than those in any other developed countries. To put it in perspective, the risk of maternal death is more than 10 times greater in the United States than in Poland.
The report focused on the global disparity in survival and health among rich and poor urban families. In the United States, a look at infant mortality in Washington, D.C. found that babies in the poorest part of the city are about 10 times more likely to die before their first birthday than babies in the richest part of the city.
The report cited 6.6 deaths per 1,000 live births in the nation’s capital city in 2013. Calling the rate an all-time low for the city, the report said it is still three times the rates found in Stockholm and Tokyo.
“We need to do more to make sure that all mothers and babies have a fair chance of survival and a happy, healthy life — no matter where they live,” Carolyn Miles, president and CEO of Save the Children, said in a release. “Save the Children believes that a mother in Somalia, or frankly a mother in America, deserves the same opportunity to thrive as a mother in Norway.”
Nordic countries made up the top five of the Mothers’ Index while countries in sub-Saharan Africa filled out the bottom. The report cited the five top-ranked countries as some of the best places in the world for mothers’ and children’s health, educational, economic and political status.
The report has been updated and released annually for 16 years to coincide with Mother’s Day.