American women have a one in 1,800 risk of dying in childbirth, the worst level of risk in any developed country in the world, according to a shocking report released by Save the Children, an international NGO that promotes children's rights.
Save the Children's 16th annual State of the World's Mothers 2015 report issued to coincide with Mother's Day contains more dismal data about the sad state of maternal health care in the United States.
Among the dismaying statistics:
- The U.S. ranks 61st globally in maternal health or the worst among any developed country in the world.
- An American mother is more than 10 times likely to die in childbirth compared to a Polish mother.
- Washington D.C. has the highest infant mortality rate among the 25 capital cities in developing countries studied, with 7.9 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2012. By comparison, Stockholm and Oslo had infant mortality rates at or below 2 deaths per 1,000 live births.
- Many major U.S. cities have an even higher infant mortality rate than Washington D.C. Cleveland and Detroit reported rates of 14.1 and 12.4 infant deaths per 1,000 live births, respectively, in 2011.
- An American child is just as likely to die before the age of 5 as a child in Bosnia or Serbia.
- The under-age-5 mortality rate in the United States nationwide is 6.9 per 1,000 live births.
"In the grand scheme of things, this isn't that bad, but compared to other developed countries, the United States is dead last," said Dr. Bina Valsangkar, MD, MPH, a pediatrician and newborn technical advisor for Save the Children's Saving Newborn Lives Program.
The report ranks the best places to be a mother. Norway, Finland, Iceland, Denmark and Sweden are the top five countries in maternal care.
"These Scandinavian countries are doing a much better job with these indicators," Dr. Valsangkar told CBS News.
"This is in large part because they've been able to make national systemic commitments to raise the economic, political, and educational status of women."
Save the Children also ranked 179 countries based on five indicators: maternal health, children's well-being, and education, economic, and political status.
Even by these standards, the United States performed worse, falling to 33rd place worldwide compared to 31st last year.
Despite the unnerving data, Dr. Valsangkar hopes the data can influence U.S. legislators to invest in maternal health and healthcare during and after pregnancy, and encourage them to commit more resources to raising the educational, economic and political status of women.
"It's not an easy fix. But we see these things working in countries ranking high in the Mother's Index", she said.
"We know that they can work if we put them into place. It's not going to happen overnight, but when you bring this data into the spotlight, ultimately we want to influence decision makers to make those systemic changes that are needed to get these indicators where we want them to be".