FriendBurst Blog

I have no idea what my family is planning for me
this Mother’s Day — if anything — but I do know that I am one of the
lucky ones. My children get to go to school every morning. I send them
off with a nutritious breakfast, and greet them at the end of the day
with a warm meal and a warm bed. They don’t have to worry about violence
or civil war when they walk down the street, and we all have full
access to top notch health care.

Childbirth more dangerous than bullets or bombs

Now consider this: childbirth in Afghanistan is more dangerous today than bullets or bombs.

According to Save the Children’s newest State of the World’s Mothers report, which every year ranks the best and worst places to be a mother, Afghanistan falls dead last.

“Basically 1 in 11 women in Afghanistan will die
during pregnancy or childbirth — that’s about 200 times the risk they
are going to be harmed by the conflict in Afghanistan,” says Mary Beth
Powers, chief of Save the Children’s newborn and child survival
campaign.

“What we’re really concerned about as we go into
this budget-cutting session is that we don’t try to balance the budget
on the backs of poor women and children, in this country or around the
world,” Powers continues. “So it’s a really critical time for people to
be looking at where it’s good to be a mom, and where it’s still
difficult to be a mom.”

Top to bottom: a stark contrast in life expectancy

So if Afghanistan is at the bottom of the list,
who’s at the top? That honor goes to Norway, where just 1 in 333
children die before age 5, and women typically complete 18 years of
school. Compare that to Afghanistan, where 2 out of every 5 children are
malnourished and 1 in 5 will die before his or her 5^th
birthday. Afghan women average less than 5 years of schooling. As for
life expectancy, Norwegian women typically live to age 83. And Afghan
women? Try 45.

Eight out of the 10 top-ranked countries are in
Western Europe. On the other hand, and perhaps no surprise, 8 of the 10
worst countries for mothers are in sub-Saharan Africa.

Where does the U.S. fit into the picture?

The United States ranked 31^st out of 44 developed countries this year – dropping 3 slots compared to last year’s index. Why?

“One of the key factors and where the United States
just doesn’t compete with Europe or Australia or New Zealand is in
child mortality. We still have twice the child mortality rates,” Powers
contends. Believe it or not, the United States’ rate for maternal
mortality is the highest of any industrialized nation.

“We lose more mothers from pregnancy-related causes
than most other countries that ranked really well, and that has to do
with the underlying conditions faced by women often living in poor
situations in the U.S.,” Powers explains.

Think about it this way: a mother in the U.S. is
more than 7 times as likely as a mother 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.

A child in the U.S. is more than twice as likely as
a child in Greece, Iceland, Japan, Luxembourg, Norway, Slovenia,
Singapore or Sweden to die before turning 5.

Furthermore, the United States has the least
generous maternity leave policy of any wealthy nation the report found.
On average, a new mother in the U.S. gets 12 weeks of paid leave.
Norwegian mothers get close to a year.

The vital need to invest in mothers and children

“Both developing countries and developed countries
really have to invest in making sure every mother and every child has
access to a skilled health workers,” Powers says of her findings.

“We need those steps in this country, and we need
those steps around the world. Without that access to basic health care
services during pregnancy and delivery and in the first few months and
years of life, we’re going to lose kids needlessly, and we’re going to
lose mothers needlessly.”

Health care is not the only thing at stake.
Education plays vital role as Powers points out. “Keeping girls in
school longer helps them provide better for their family, mothers can
invest more in their children and in the next generation, and their
children are more likely to survive for every school year that a girl
stays in school.”

That’s a pretty startling marker, and it doesn’t
only apply to the developing world. Another startling marker: only about
58% of American children go to preschool. That number is a lot higher
in many developed nations.

“Until we really invest in making sure every child
in the United States gets the best start in early childhood education,
we’re probably going to continue to lag behind our European
counterparts,” Powers claims.

The news is not all bad

There is some promising news. Powers points to the
global reduction in child mortality rates as a step in the right
direction. Fourteen of the 15 countries that receive the most
development assistance from the U.S. have shown a palpable decline in
child deaths over the past decade. “So it’s really critical that within
that development assistance budget we prioritize health and education
assistance and we’re especially focused on keeping girls in school,”
says Powers.

My Mother’s Day wish

So what do I want this Mother’s Day? No flowers and
chocolates, thank you (not that I expect them). A little bit of extra
attention and love would be nice. And I’d really like to sleep in.

But in all seriousness, considering that an average
of 1,000 mothers around the world die each day from complications of
pregnancy and childbirth — that’s more than 350,000 women — the best
Mother’s Day gift of all would be to ensure that by next year, fewer
mothers die, more mothers get prenatal health care, and more girls have
an opportunity to go to school. After all, educating girls is one of the
most effective ways to improve not only the well-being, but the status
— economic and otherwise — of women and children the world over. And
that affects us all.

Take action! Click here to sign the petition and support funding for maternal and childhood health around the world.