Best place in the world to be a mother

Bangladesh rose six spots on Save the Children’s 2014 Mothers’ Index, widening the gap from neighbours India and Pakistan, to reach 130th out of 178 countries globally. The country however still lags behind other countries in the region, such as Nepal (116th) and Sri Lanka (89th).
The index is a part of the children’s aid agency’s annual State of the World’s Mothers report, now in its fifteenth edition, showing which countries are succeeding — and which are failing — in saving and improving the lives of mothers and their children. Overall, Finland was ranked the best place to be a mother for the second straight year and Somalia came in last.
The report shows that maternal and child mortality can be cut dramatically, even in the most challenging countries of the world, when efforts are made to improve services for mothers and children.
In Bangladesh over the past 15 years maternal mortality decreased by 60 percent, child mortality was cut by half, average number of  years of schooling increased by 3 years, and gross national income per capita as well as the number of women in parliament more than doubled.
“Bangladesh has been consistently rising on the State of the World’s Mothers index, with dramatic cuts in maternal and child mortality. This is a result of strong political will and willingness to invest in healthcare for children,” says Michael Foley, Director of Health and Nutrition for Save the Children in Bangladesh. “However, at 130th position, Bangladesh still has a long way to go in ending preventable child and maternal deaths.
One out of every 24 children die before their fifth birthday, 60 percent of those within the first 28 days of life, many from conditions which would have been easily treatable if they had access to a skilled health worker. Another concern is that Government funding for health as a percentage of the total budget has been decreasing over time, rather than increasing.”
This year’s State of the World’s Mothers report focuses on mothers in humanitarian crises in order to better understand and respond to their needs. Mothers in humanitarian crises are often faced with many obstacles to keep their children healthy — such as physical and economic access to essential services — while their own vulnerability to poverty, malnutrition, sexual violence, unplanned pregnancy and unassisted childbirth greatly increases.
To protect mothers and children in the aftermath of disasters, Save the Children is calling upon governments and civil society to:
• Ensure that every mother and newborn living in crisis has access to high quality health care, including family planning services, and breastfeeding counselling
• Build the resilience of health systems to minimise the damaging effects of crises on health
• Develop national and local preparedness plans tailored to respond to the specific needs of mothers, children and babies in emergencies
• Ensure adequate financing and coordination to timely respond to mothers and children’s needs in emergencies