“The worst place in the world to give birth is the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where a woman has a one in 30 chance of dying as a result — while the best is Finland, where the risk of death is one in 12,200, according to” Save the Children’s “State of the World’s Mothers” (.pdf) report, released Tuesday, The Guardian reports (Boseley, 5/6). “The 10 bottom-ranked countries were all from sub-Saharan Africa, with one woman in 30 dying from pregnancy-related causes on average and one child in seven dying before his or her fifth birthday,” BBC News writes, noting, “The charity compared factors such as maternal health, child mortality, education and income in 176 countries” (5/7). “The charity’s report also charts the numbers of babies dying within 24 hours of being born,” BBC reports in a separate article (Sellgren, 5/7).

The annual report “says despite much progress being made in reducing maternal and child deaths, every year, three million babies die within the first month of life. Many just live a few hours,” according to VOA News, which adds, “Save the Children President and CEO Carolyn Miles said there’s a widespread and mistaken belief that little can be done to save newborn lives in developing countries” (DeCapua, 5/7). “Although the calls for some big changes in health care systems to prevent newborn deaths, it also says that some simple, inexpensive things could save many lives,” such as washing umbilical cords with an antiseptic, NPR’s “Shots” blog notes (Beaubien, 5/7). Save the Children provides a number of infographics related to the index on its webpage (5/7).