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U.S.A. 28th in Best Countries for Mothers List

Posted May 19, 2010 by Matthew Denton

Is it time to change the social services for our women?

Mothers’ Day would have been perfect for all of us, had not the Save the Children’s State of the World’s Mothers 2010 report been released to coincide with the worldwide celebration of the said event. Its Mothers’ Index reveals the top places for mothers around the globe based on an analysis of indicators of women’s and children’s health and well-being, as an effect of providing mothers with education, financial and livelihood opportunities and maternal and child health care to allow them survive with their children. It was a clearly disappointing result for Uncle Sam who has been shortchanging Lady Liberty all these years when it ranked 28th, down a notch from last year, in the More Developed Countries category. On the other hand, Norway ranked first followed by other European nations such as Australia, Iceland, Sweden, Denmark, New Zealand, Finland, the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany.

The official report states, “A woman in the Unites States is more than five times as likely as a woman in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Greece or Italy to die from pregnancy-related causes in her lifetime and her risk of maternal death is nearly 10-fold that of a woman in Ireland… Only 61 percent of children in the United States are enrolled in preschool – making it the seventh lowest country in the developed world on this indicator…The United States has the least generous maternity leave policy—both in terms of duration and percent of wages paid—of any wealthy nation.”

But we still have a lot of reason to be thankful for. In a separate interview , Mary Beth Powers, Vice-Chair of Save the Children’s EVERY ONE Campaign states, “While the situation in the United States needs to improve, mothers in the developing world are facing far greater risks to their own health and that of their children. The shortage of skilled birth attendants and challenges in accessing birth control means that women in countries at the bottom of the list face the most pregnancies and the most risky birth situations, resulting in newborn and maternal deaths.”

MSN.com’s Money Central once ranked the top states for mothers in the country. The top spots possess advantages far from the abovementioned characteristics considering that California moms get up to six weeks of paid leave to care for their children, New York pays for maternity leave, and Oklahoma is number 1 in the country in terms of child care, thanks to its universal pre-K program access. Yet one thing is shared by these states: the very high cost of child care.

This should be a wake up call for the government. At least, Michelle Obama must take part in improving maternal benefits in this country, being a mother herself. I propose three things. First, improve access to healthcare and medicine for pregnant and sick women. Second, increase funding for research on pregnancy-related deaths. Third, provide assistance to women who are seeking access to further education or employment with opportunities for managerial positions.

But above all these three proposals, I would suggest that the government must craft a plan on providing homeownership assistance to single mothers. They must be given enough support to gain mortgage approval and maintain monthly payments. In this way, we’ll have improved homeownership conditions for women around the country.

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