Parenting Australia

Australia is the second best place in the world to be a mother, according to Save the Children’s 11th annual State of the World’s Mothers report released today, but still ranks in the bottom half of developed countries to be a child.

Australia has moved from third in last year’s Mothers’ Index to second place in 2010, but has slipped further into the bottom half of developed countries on the Children’s Index with a ranking of 28 out of 43.

Contributing factors to Australia’s low ranking in the Children’s Index include Australia’s under-5 mortality rate of six deaths per 1,000 live births. At this rate children in Australia are twice as likely to die before their fifth birthday as children in Finland, Iceland, Luxembourg or Sweden.

Twenty of the 43 countries in the Index’s top tier of developed countries outperformed Australia on the significant child mortality indicator. This is significant especially when you consider the number of Indigenous children in Australia dying before the age of five is three times that of non-Indigenous children.

Dr Annie Pettitt, Child Rights Specialist with Save the Children, said: “As Mother’s Day approaches it’s encouraging to see that Australia is seen as the second best place in the world to be a mum in terms of health, education and economic status.

“However, this report highlights that we still need to make improvements to reduce the numbers of children dying before their fifth birthday. An important first step would be to tackle the shortfall of almost 2,000 midwives in Australia, especially in remote and rural areas where we know the shortage is greatest.”

The Mothers’ Index is based on an analysis of indicators of women’s and children’s health and well-being, and illustrates that providing mothers with access to education, economic opportunities and maternal and child health care gives mothers and their children the best chance to survive and thrive.

Afghanistan ranks worst overall in the 160 countries in the Mothers’ Index, which includes 43 developed nations and 117 in the developing world.

Afghanistan is one of the riskiest places on earth for the health of mothers and children with Afghan women facing a one in eight chance of dying from complications during pregnancy and childbirth while a quarter of all children do not reach their fifth birthday.

Only 14 per cent of births in Afghanistan are attended by skilled personnel and a typical woman receives only four years of education and will have an average life expectancy of just 44 years compared to 84 in Australia.

The top 10 best places to be a mother sees Norway ranked first, followed by Australia, Iceland, Sweden, Denmark, New Zealand, Finland, the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany. The bottom 10 places put Afghanistan last, preceded by Niger, Chad, Guinea-Bissau, Yemen, Democratic Republic of Congo, Mali, Sudan, Eritrea and Equatorial Guinea.

The United Kingdom ranks 14 on the Mother’s Index, Italy 17 and Greece 24, whilst the United States is ranked 28, primarily because its rate for maternal mortality – one in 4,800 – is one of the highest in the developed world.

Save the Children’s State of the World’s Mothers 2010 report also highlights the many ways women working on the front lines of health care are making a significant impact, saving 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.

It is estimated that the lives of almost 250,000 women and 5.5 million children could be saved each year if all women had access to a full package of essential healthcare.

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