The Guardian reports on what it’s like to give birth in Sweden and in Niger. Why Sweden and Niger? Because they are the countries in the extreme positions (Sweden at the top, Niger at the bottom) of Save the Children’s 2006 Mother’s Index. The Mother’s Index, which has been produced by Save the Children since the year 2000,
helps document conditions for mothers and children in 125 countries — 26 developed nations and 99 in the developing world — and shows where mothers fare best and where they face the greatest hardships
It is found in the annual State of the World’s Mothers report (that’s a link to the 2006 report, in PDF format). Previous years’ reports are also available. I didn’t have time to read the report in detail, but I’ve downloaded it for proper perusal later — it really looks fascinating (as the Guardian article is).
Just as a note, the highest ranked Caribbean country in the index? Cuba. Trinidad and Tobago and Jamaica were close behind. Several Caribbean countries (including Barbados) could not be ranked because of incomplete data, but some of them are assigned scores for indicators where relevant information was available.