U.S. Falls in Ranking for Best Places to be a Mother

The United States ranks 31 out of 178 countries in terms of maternal and child health, according to a recent ranking of the best places to be a mother.

According to the Save the Children's list 15th annual Mothers' Index, the United States was the sixth safest and most comfortable place in the world for mother and newborn child, back in 2006. However, just eight years later, the United States has been handily beaten by thirty other countries in terms of maternal and child health care availability and mortality rates.

According to the list, one of the reasons the U.S. has fallen off its pedestal is that in the last decade-or-so the maternal death rate during live birth has risen by more than 50 percent.

This findings is echoed by a separate study that has found that out of 180 countries, the U.S. is one of eight who actually saw an increase in maternal mortality since 2003, with 18.5 mothers dying for every 100,000 live births in the U.S.

However, it isn't just the maternal mortality rate that is making the U.S. a worse place for mothers to live, compared to countries like Finland (ranked 1), Sweden (ranked 3), Spain (ranked 7), and even Germany (ranked 8).

The State of the World's Mothers 2014 report, which the index was a part of, details how countries that have dropped in ranking since 2006 often had "massive economic disparity" between the rich and the poor, often resulting in limited access to necessary resources for poor mothers.

It was also noted that while the U.S. did make progress in saving children's lives during and after birth -- cutting the risk of death for children younger than five years old by 15 percent -- most countries made even more progress. In-fact, only 14 countries out of the 178 assessed made less progress than the U.S. in reducing infant mortality within the last 15 years.

Still, there is hope for the U.S. yet. While the country has not made much progress in improving the state of things for mothers within the last decade, the country's overall state of affair for mothers and children may not have declined much either. Some experts blame the increased mortality rates on the fact that more and more risky pregnancies are occurring.

Risky pregnancies are often associated with premature births, substance abuse, and obesity -- all largely preventable problems in the U.S.

The Save the Children's State of the World's Mothers 2014 report was released this April.