Portugal drops slightly on list of best places to be a mother

Despite still being among the top-20 best countries in the world for a woman to have a baby, on a list of 179 countries, Portugal’s short drop down the rungs will no doubt have observers questioning why. Portugal was overtaken on the ‘State of the World’s Mothers’ index by Slovenia and Singapore.
Positions are established based on calculations from five criteria: maternal and child health, including the mortality rate of under-fives, the level of education, economic well-being and the participation of women in their country’s politics. However, the Portuguese capital Lisbon fared much better, having come in fifth on a list of best European capital cities in which to be a mother, based on the analysis of child death rates in the world’s 25 capitals with greatest economic return. Save the Children’s ranking was revealed on Tuesday this week.
According to recent data collected from organisations operating in the countries assessed, in some cases up to March this year, Save the Children found that in Portugal, one in every 8,800 women died during pregnancy or childbirth and an average of 3.8 deaths per one thousand births was registered.
It also found that Portuguese woman study for an average of 16 years and earn around €18,900 per year, €500 more than the figures published by the organisation in 2014.
Furthermore, around 31 percent of seats in Portuguese Parliament are held by women.
Leading the way at the top of the table and being the best country in which to be a mother is Norway, followed by Finland and Iceland. Spain comes in 7th position, ahead of Germany, Italy and Switzerland, in 8th, 12th and 13th places respectively. The only non-European country to feature in the top-10 is Australia, while the USA ranked 33rd.At the opposite end of the table, down at the very bottom of the list, offering the worst conditions for motherhood, are Somalia, which comes in last, preceded by Guinea-Bissau, Chad, the Ivory Coast, Mali and Niger.

According to Save the Children, the conditions for mothers and children in the bottom-ranking countries are “severe”.
It says one in 30 women die due to complications in pregnancy and one in eight children do not reach their fifth birthday.
“Nine of the 11 countries on[bottom of] the list are affected by conflict or are considered ‘fragile’ states, which means that they are failing in fundamental ways to perform functions necessary to satisfy the basic needs of its citizens,” said the organisation.
In this year’s report Save the Children also created a list of data on the mortality rate in 25 of the world’s highest-yielding capitals.
Lisbon came in fifth on the index, which was led by Prague (Czech Republic), followed by Stockholm (Sweden), Oslo (Norway) and Tokyo (Japan).
According to the report, its focus “is on the hidden and often neglected plight of the urban poor.”
Published to commemorate mother’s day, the annual Mothers’ Index “uses the latest data on women’s health, children’s health, educational attainment, economic well-being and female political participation to rank 179 countries and show where mothers and children fare best and where they face the greatest hardship.”

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