The 16th annual Mothers’ Index released by ‘Save the Children’ rated 179 countries based on five indicators related to maternal health, education, income levels and the status of women. Norway has ranked as the world’s best place to be a mother in this survey. United States dropped to the 33rd spot in this annual scorecard behind Japan, Poland and Croatia. Somalia was rated as the worst place, just below the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Central African Republic.This year, the United States dropped from number 31 on the list to 33. The report revealed that American women have a one in 1,800 risk of maternal death, the worst level of risk of any developed country in the world. It also stated the an American woman is more than 10 times as likely to die in childbirth than a Polish woman.Scandinavian countries have consistently taken the first place in the Mothers’ Index, with Norway this year beating out Finland which held the top spot last year. Among the top ten places, Australia is the only non-European country, at number nine. France and Britain take the 23rd and 24th spot respectively, below Canada at number 20.The ten worst places are all sub-Saharan African countries. Nine of the bottom 10 countries are wracked by conflict. The disparity in terms of infant mortality rate is striking. In the top 10 countries, one mother out of 290 will lose a child before the age of five years, while in the bottom 10, that rate stands at one in eight.Save the Children also looked at infant mortality rate in the world’s 24 wealthiest capital cities and found Washington had the highest rate at 7.9 deaths per 1,000. In comparison, Stockholm and Oslo had infant mortality rates at or below 2 deaths per 1,000.Save the Children CEO Carolyn Miles said, “The data confirmed that a country’s economic wealth is not the sole factor leading to happy mothers, but that policies need to be put in place. In the case of Norway, they do have wealth, but they also invest that wealth in things like mothers and children, as a very high priority.”Save the Children also reported that mothers are having a tough time in the world’s expanding cities, with survival gaps widening between rich and poor. Cities in Bangladesh, Cambodia, Ghana, India, Kenya, Madagascar, Nigeria, Peru, Rwanda, Vietnam and Zimbabwe have the highest gap for child survival, with the poor children three to five times more likely to die than their affluent peers.Source: Medindia