SED 6 - Mothers all around the world...

[nia_kantorka]

At work I screen lots of medical newsletters on a daily basis. Today I've stumbled over 'The State of the World's Mothers 2015' report. It compares the conditions of/for mothers all around the world (179 countries were included into the stats).

You find data about mother's health, mortality of children (under the age of 5), education, income and the influence women/mothers have in their countries (political status).

The best conditions to live have mothers in
1. Norway
2. Finnland
3. Iceland
4. Denmark
5. Sweden
6. Netherlands
7. Spain
8. Germany
9. Australia
10. Belgium

France takes place 23 in the ranking, the UK #24 and the US #33. And for some other friends who might be interested; Slovenia #15, Austria #11, Slovakia #34 and Bolivia #88. Worst are the conditions for mothers or children in Somalia #179.

It's really intersting though very frightening to learn the absolute numbers here.

Comments

[my_thestral]

Wow, I see the pattern here: Northern Europe, here I come! :) Meh, no. 15 is not that bad, but I'm surprised over UK and France being lower than what seems to be the EU pretty high average - I wonder why is that!? I would think UK at least would be much higher. I'm not surprised about the US, though.
Thanks for that, that's very interesting info for this anthropologist here. And now I'm going to let my BF gloat a little, how much better his country is than the one we live in. :)

[nia_kantorka]

Haha, you have snacked that blond guy form Iwao, did you? Or is it someone else? Ehm, sorry, got distracted by handsome blondy- not my fault. ;p

Back to the topic. Actually, I think no. 15 is pretty good.

Part of it is probably related to the money that's going into the health care system of every country. But job availability and child caring options are important too.

I was suprised about France, but I have no clue how their health care system works.

In the UK a lot of expensive therapies aren't covered by NHS- National Health Service. I know it for sure about some oncologic treatments (expensive targeted therapies) which were often declined by NICE (National Institut for Health and Care Exellence). NICE judges about such new treatments. If their opinion is negative, you can buy it yourself (impossible for normal people who don't have 5.000-20.000 € to spare every month). I assume it goes for other treatments as well.

[my_thestral]

I suppose in that light 15. place really isn't so bad. I think women's chances of having a career are somewhat limited here, because of being the primary caretakers of kids, but I think most medical procedures are still free - but with incredibly long waiting lists as if they are waiting for people to change their mind or even die waiting. Honestly, it's ghastly. But of course, there's always room for improvement (unless you're from Norway, heh).
Heh, Iwao's icon reminded me of him, but I had my eye for him for quite a while. That's Jordan Sörbom, a Swedish model, and he looks like my vision of Scorpius. :) There's one picture on his instagram, where he's obviously in a company of his friend, I assume another model, and it looks like a date between Jamie Potter and Scorpius Malfoy. :D Gorgeous guy!

[candamira.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the Nordics. I always had that feeling that life in general is a bit more relaxed there. In the sense of a government not draining every ounce of energy from their citizens by ridiculous amounts of bureaucracy you have to stem in your free time or practically forcing both parents to have a job because maintaining a living is that expensive. I love the Nordics. If we weren't so happy with our current neighbourhood, and if husband didn't have that job he's enjoying, I think we'd try to move...

I have another fact you may find interesting: In Hamburg mothers aren't allowed to decide how many hours their children spend at the nursery/kindergarden. Some authority makes a calculation based on cumulated working hours of both parents and decides they get x hours of nursery/kiga time per day. Is that crass, or what? I'd hate it.

[nia_kantorka]

No way, hon. I won't let you move to Scandinavia. *grabs tight*

Well, I'm not tempted because those countries are just too cold for my liking. I barely make it through our own winters. No way I'm able to live in Norway or Finnland the whole year.

Hamburg. :O Didn't know that. Wow. Ok, living in Hamburg is cancelled. But visiting it is still an option. Such a lovely city...

[anemonen.livejournal.com]

For most people it's necessary for both parents to work here in Norway too. There's one year of paid leave split between the parents, but unless one of them has a very well paid job that's as long as one is able to stay at home. But there's mostly room for all the kids above one year to go to nursery school, so there is a good system to enable people to both work and have kids.

And Nia, it's not that cold here :P Well, not everywhere. Like, the south west coast have very mild winters. In Bergen, where I'm from, there's usually only a couple of days of snow each winter. The winter darkness, though. That's seriously depressing o_O

[indybaggins.livejournal.com]

Belgium! Glad we just made the top ten, although that might change, there's some talk about shortening allowed hospital stays for new moms...

[nia_kantorka]

Oh, I'm sure all other countries are/will economise their health care systems too. :o
It's frightening how little social or other empathic skills are worth in our societies.

[capitu]

I knew my country was going to be pretty down on the list, however, things are changing. I wouldn't be surprised if say, 5 years ago, the conditions were even worse. It's not enough, but it's something. ^^

[nia_kantorka]

I've never seen that report before. But there are older versions available (the current is the 16th report). I'm sure you are right and the condintions are changing for the better at your place.

And I'm not sure what's going on in the countries that didn't make it on the list (to small, no data available...). Hon, I'm sure it could be much worse. *hugs*

[huldrejenta.livejournal.com]

I often think about what a privileged part of the world we live in. Thank goodness things are improving some places - slowly, but improving nonetheless - but seeing that statistics in black and white and the incrompehensible differences is so sad.