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[ReturnoftheMack]

The United States may be a wealthy, privileged, industrialized nation, but when it comes to being an ideal place to raise a family, it ranks well below several European countries. Take into account nonexistent parental leave policies, low preschool enrollment rates, and high teen-pregnancy rates and its rank falls even further, according to Save the Children, an independent organization dedicated to helping children around the world.

Related: The deadliest states for kids to live in

In Save the Children's 13th State of the World's Mothers Report, released today, the United States ranks 25th out of 165 countries overall. That's up six spots from its 31st place showing last year, largely thanks to improvements in education rates for girls, Carolyn Miles, president and CEO of Save the Children told Yahoo! Shine in an interview.

"The longer a girl stays in school, the later she'll have a child, and the healthier the child and the mother will be," Miles said.

The report includes a "Mother's Index," which ranks 165 countries based on indicators of mother and child well-being, including education rates for girls, the number of women in politics, child and maternal mortality rates, the number of attended births, and earned income rates, and more. In spite of the United State's status as a world leader, certain issues -- high teen pregnancy rates, poverty levels, and lack of access to health care -- continue to keep the country out of the index's Top 10.

"In the United States, mothers face a one in 2,100 risk of maternal death -- the highest of any industrialized nation," the report points out. "Only three developed countries -- Albania, Moldova, and the Russian Federation -- perform worse than the United States on this indicator."

"A woman in the U.S. is more than seven times as likely to die of a pregnancy-related cause in her lifetime than a woman in Italy or Ireland," Miles adds. "When it comes to the number of children enrolled in preschools or the political status of women, the United States also places in the bottom 10 countries of the developed world."

The fact that the U.S. is the only industrialized nation not to offer some form of paid maternity leave is one factor that pushes the U.S. lower on the list. And while the Obama Administration's Affordable Care Act has helped many poor women obtain prenatal care, Miles says, the mortality rates for children under age 5 are still far too high, with eight deaths per 1,000 children. "There are 40 countries that perform better than the U.S. on that indicator," she explains.

Most of the countries on the index's Top 10 list are in Europe, where paid maternity leave is the norm, breastfeeding is widely accepted, and government-backed support programs for new parents abound. With high levels of female education, women in politics, and one of the most generous family leave policies in the developed world, Norway took top honors; it also has the highest ratio of female-to-male earned income, the report said, and the second-lowest mortality rate for children under age 5 in the world.

At the bottom of the list was the Republic of Niger in West Africa, which performed poorly across all indicators of maternal and child health and well-being. Most of the lowest-ranked countries are in sub-Saharan Africa, where conflict and malnutrition are rampant. "The big surprise for me was the disparity between the Top 10 and the Bottom 10," Miles says of the report.

The differences between the two groups are heart-breaking. In Norway, girls receive nearly 18 years of formal education, versus just four years in Niger. Eighty-two percent of Norwegian women routinely use contraception, compared to five percent of women in Niger. The risk of childhood death in Norway is one out of 333; in Niger, it's one out of seven. "In Niger," Miles points out, "virtually every mother will lose a child before age 5."

Iceland, Sweden, New Zealand, Finland, Denmark, Australia, Belgium, Ireland, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom rounded out the top 10 on the Mother's Index; the Democratic Republic of the Congo, South Sudan, Sudan, Chad, Eritrea, Mali, Guinea-Bissau, Yemen, and Afghanistan were also in the bottom 10.

Nearly a third of all children who live in the lowest-ranked countries on the Mother's Index suffer from malnutrition, the report says. While breast feeding is a matter of choice -- or fodder for the Mommy Wars -- for many moms in the United States, in these poorer countries it can be the difference between life and death.

"In the developing world, if you don't have clean water or if mothers don't believe that breast milk is the only thing that kids really need for the first six months of life… kids can become very ill and die."

At least five children die each minute from issues relating to malnutrition, and the report recommends some simple solutions -- including breast-feeding and safe hygiene practices -- that can help solve the problem. Save the Children is urging world leaders to commit to ending preventable child deaths (you can sign their petition here).

"One of our big successes has been in the area of child survival," Miles says. "A lot of our work is around making sure that kids make it to their 5th birthday."

http://shine.yahoo.com/team-mom/best-co ... 00422.html

[ThatGuyRoman]

SHOCKED, I tell you. SHOCKED.

[US Agent]

Not surprised.

The US is about 10 years away from Idiocracy.

[S.F. Jude Terror]

Shut up Punchy, you don't live here so you don't get to talk about America.

/premptive'd

[US Agent]

Shut up Punchy, you don't live here so you don't get to talk about America.

/premptive'd

Ha!

For a minute there I thought I had Punchy on ignore with the rest of the undesirables.

[ThatGuyRoman]

Not surprised.

The US is about 10 years away from Idiocracy.

You're right, we need to kill Luke Wilson to make sure this terrifying future never happens.




Or we could just kill Owen Wilson... just because.

[achilles]

You're right, we need to kill Luke Wilson to make sure this terrifying future never happens.




Or we could just kill Owen Wilson... just because.

I thought they were the same person.

[Rockman]

Articles like these always rate government programs as a positive thing, like individuals are incapable of providing something positive to their children without out the ever intrusive hand of the government.

[Rockman]

Not surprised.

The US is about 10 years away from Idiocracy.

Not true. On average people graduate high school knowing more than they did 50 years ago, part of that is because they teach more a lot earlier. With an endless pool of information at our fingertips (the internet) people can find the answer to almost any question in a matter of minutes. It's common to believe that the population as a whole is getting dumber, but that just isn't objectively true. Especially when you compare our society to older societies where they used leeches as a way to cure people's ailments.

Now an argument could be made for reality tv culture and increased emphasis on beauty for worth in the society. When we start revering people for their looks above people who have actual useful talents, then I think we do have a problem and a trend that could be very damaging to this country.

[MoneyMelon]

Articles like these always rate government programs as a positive thing, like individuals are incapable of providing something positive to their children without out the ever intrusive hand of the government.

For people at the lower end of the economic scale, government programs for expecting and new parents are a good thing. Without them, they often have little to no access to quality healthcare or support....which, of course leads to higher mortality rates for children and mothers. If you're in the middle of the scale (or top, obviously), you probably don't rely on these things because you can afford private insurance or you're lucky enough to get it through your job and you most likely are educated better, statistically have more family support and are more prepared. But the people on the lower end who do depend on those programs tend to impact the national average.

[MoneyMelon]

Not true. On average people graduate high school knowing more than they did 50 years ago, part of that is because they teach more a lot earlier. With an endless pool of information at our fingertips (the internet) people can find the answer to almost any question in a matter of minutes. It's common to believe that the population as a whole is getting dumber, but that just isn't objectively true. Especially when you compare our society to older societies where they used leeches as a way to cure people's ailments.

Now an argument could be made for reality tv culture and increased emphasis on beauty for worth in the society. When we start revering people for their looks above people who have actual useful talents, then I think we do have a problem and a trend that could be very damaging to this country.

The biggest problem is that our competition is educating our workforce a lot better than we are. I think it's pointless to compare today to where we were 50 years ago. We're not competing with 1962 America. We're competing with Europe and Asia in 2012.

Meanwhile we have politicians who want to teach kids that Jesus planted dinosaur bones to confuse us.

[GHERU]

The biggest problem is that our competition is educating our workforce a lot better than we are. I think it's pointless to compare today to where we were 50 years ago. We're not competing with 1962 America. We're competing with Europe and Asia in 2012.

Meanwhile we have politicians who want to teach kids that Jesus planted dinosaur bones to confuse us.

Evangelical Scientists Refute Gravity With New 'Intelligent Falling' Theory

According to the ECFR paper published simultaneously this week in the International Journal Of Science and the adolescent magazine God's Word For Teens!, there are many phenomena that cannot be explained by secular gravity alone, including such mysteries as how angels fly, how Jesus ascended into Heaven, and how Satan fell when cast out of Paradise.

[Rockman]

Most european countries have a lot more programs than we do. That doesn't appeal to me personally, so when an article uses them as a basis to say that Country X is a great place to raise a kid, I'm inclined to disagree with the results.

The social programs that exist in the U.S. are another can of worms that I have very little desire to discuss.

[MoneyMelon]

Evangelical Scientists Refute Gravity With New 'Intelligent Falling' Theory

"How did we fall behind so far in math and science???"

[MoneyMelon]

Most european countries have a lot more programs than we do. That doesn't appeal to me personally, so when an article uses them as a basis to say that Country X is a great place to raise a kid, I'm inclined to disagree with the results.

The social programs that exist in the U.S. are another can of worms that I have very little desire to discuss.

Can't argue with results, as they say.