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Ammon News - By Khetam Malkawi/ Jordan times

AMMAN — Jordan ranked 103 among 176 world countries in the 2013 Mothers’ Index and Country Rankings issued by Save the Children, which determines the best and worst countries to be a mother.

According to the organisation’s 14th annual State of the World’s Mothers study issued last month, Jordan ranked 11th among countries of the region, while Bahrain ranked first and 44th among the world countries, followed by Saudi Arabia, which ranked 46th internationally.

Finland topped the ranking, feted as the best country where a mother can live, followed by Sweden and Norway.

The Democratic Republic of Congo, which was the worst place for mothers, according to the study, ranked 176 and was preceded by Somalia and Sierra Leone.

The index documents conditions of mothers around the world — in 46 developed nations and 130 developing ones — and shows where mothers fare best and where they face the greatest hardships.

“All countries with populations over 100,000 and sufficient data are included in the index,” said the report, which is available on the organisation’s website.

The report also tackled issues concerning child mortality, listing world countries and rates of first-day mortality in each country, in addition to the number of first day deaths in the Birth Day Risk Index.

According to the index, the rate of infants’ first-day mortality in Jordan is four per 1,000 live births, and the number of these deaths is 660.

The rate of newborn mortality — during the first month — in Jordan is 12 per 1,000 live births, while the under-five mortality is 21 per 1,000 live births.

The report also showed that every year, nearly three million babies die within the first month of life, mostly from preventable causes. More than a third of these babies die on their first day of life — making the day of birth the riskiest for newborns and mothers almost everywhere.

The report indicates that chronic malnourishment, which leads to mental or physical impairment or "stunting", is particularly severe in the South Asian region.

According to the Birth Day Risk Index, of the one million babies who die each year on the day they are born, almost 40 per cent are in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh.

"Sub-Saharan Africa is by far the riskiest region to be born," the study said, as the 14 countries with the highest death rates are all located in this region.

A national study launched earlier this year showed that respiratory distress syndrome was the leading cause of death among infants (53.5 per cent), followed by sepsis (16.2 per cent) and congenital anomalies (13.8 per cent).

The study, conducted by UNICEF, the Ministry of Health and the Higher Population Council showed that 30 per cent of all neonatal deaths were preventable and that 44.3 per cent were possibly preventable with optimal care.

State of the World’s Mothers

• Preterm birth is the major cause of newborn death (35%), followed by infection (25%), asphyxia (23%) or other causes (17%)

• More than half of all first-day deaths in the industrialised world are in the US, due in large part to high rates of preterm births

• 11,300 babies in the US die the day they are born

• 60% of newborn deaths in the US occur during the first day of life

• 1 in 2,400 women in the US will die from a maternal cause, the same as Iran

• Sub-Saharan Africa is the riskiest region to be born, followed by South Asia

Source: Save the Children