NZ 4th best place for mothers but . . .

New Zealand is 4th best in Save the Children’s State of the World’s Mother’s report.

European countries – along with Australia and New Zealand – dominate the top positions while countries in sub-Saharan Africa dominate the lowest tier. The United States places 25th this year.

Most industrialized countries cluster tightly at the top of the  Index – with the majority of these countries performing well on all indicators – the highest ranking countries attain very high scores for mothers’ and children’s health, educational and economic status.

The 10 bottom-ranked countries in this year’s  Mother’s Index are a reverse image of the top 10, performing poorly on all indicators. Conditions for mothers and their children in these countries are devastating.

The top 10 places to be a mother are: Norway, Iceland, Sweden, New Zealand, Denmark, Finland, Australia, Belgium, Ireland and Netherlands/ United Kingdon.

The worst 10 are: ( from 156 to 165) DR Congo, South Sudan, Sudan, Chad, Eritrea, Mali, Guinea-Bissau, Yemen, Afghanistan and Niger.

 . . .The contrast between the top-ranked country, Norway, and the lowest ranked country, Niger, is striking. Skilled health personnel are present at virtually every birth in Norway, while only 1 in 3 births are attended in Niger.

In Norway, nearly 40 percent of parliamentary seats are held by women; in Niger only 13 percent are. A typical Norwegian girl can expect to receive 18 years of formal education and will live to be over 83 years old. Eighty-two percent of women are using some modern method of contraception, and only 1 mother in 175 is likely to lose a child before his or her fifth birthday. At the opposite end of the spectrum, in Niger, a typical girl receives only 4 years of education and lives to only 56. Only 5 percent of women are using modern contraception, and 1 child in 7 dies before his or her fifth birthday. This means that every mother in Niger is likely to suffer the loss of a child. . .

The report recommends increased funding to improve education for women and girls, provide access to maternal and child health and advance women’s economic opportunities.

It also recommends improving current research and conducting new studies that focus on mothers’ and children’s well-being and for governments and communities in developed countries to work together to improved education and health care for disadvantaged mothers and children.

Save the Children says simple measures could save lives:

In new research for the report, Save the Children found that the simple measure of supporting mothers to breastfeed could save one million children’s lives a year. Yet the report also shows that less than 40% of all infants in developing countries receive the full benefits of exclusive breastfeeding. This is due, in part, to countries lacking strong commitment and complimentary programs that enable mothers to breastfeed. When the two do combine, the report shows that it can have success even in low-income countries, as it has done in Malawi and Madagascar.

“Our research shows that a mother’s breast milk — one single nutrition intervention — can save a million children’s lives each year,” said Miles. “All mothers should have the support they need to choose to breastfeed if they want to. Breastfeeding is good for babies no matter where they live, but in developing countries, especially those without access to clean water, breastfeeding can be a matter of life or death.”

This pre-supposes the mother has sufficient nutrition to breast feed and sadly this will not always be the case in the worst performing countries.

There is no comparison between conditions for those at the bottom and those at the top of this list but there is no room for complacency here.

The release today of the coroner’s report on the death of a new born boy is a sad reminder of that.