A new report by Save the Children, “State of the World’s Mothers 2010,” identifies Norway as the best place in the world to be a mother–and Afghanistan as the worst.
The focus of the report is on the shortage of front line health workers in developing countries–and the critical need to train more female health workers in order to save the lives of women, children and newborns living in the most marginalized communities.
“Mothers in Norway and Australia are living in the best places in the world, according to Save the Children’s 11th annual “Mothers’ Index”, which ranks the best and worst places to be a mother. Afghanistan ranked at the bottom of the list of 160 countries, which included 43 developed nations and 117 in the developing world.
The “Mothers’ Index” is highlighted in Save the Children’s State of the World’s Mothers 2010 report, which examines the many ways women working on the front lines of health care are helping to save the lives of mothers, newborns and young children, and makes an urgent call to increase the number of front-line health workers in the world’s poorest nations….”
Read the full post on the Save the Children site for an overview of the report with a list of the top ten (and bottom ten) places to be a mother–and several very interesting country comparisons across maternal and child health indicators.
UNFPA and the International Confederation of Midwives are also speaking out about the urgent need to train more front line health workers in difficult to reach communities. I posted an excerpt of their statement a couple hours ago.
Maternal Mortality Daily 