By Kyla Bender-Baird - Norway took first place in Save the
Children's annual ranking of the countries that treat mothers
best. In compiling its 11th Mothers' Index , the charity
analyzed such factors as access to health care, education and
economic opportunities. Norwegian women were deemed well paid,
possessing good access to contraception and entitled to
government-mandated generous maternity leave. - The United
States was considerably down the list, at No. 28, below Estonia,
Latvia and Croatia, USA Today reported  May 4, dragged down by
high rates of maternal mortality (1 in 4,800) and infant
mortality (8 per 1,000), low pre-school enrollment (61 percent)
and one of the least generous maternity-leave policies in terms
of duration and pay. - In other motherhood news, the Pew
Research Center found in a May 6 report on the latest statistics
about motherhood that unmarried women giving birth in the United
States has grown by 13 percent since 1990. The "New Demography
of American Motherhood " report compared bi