WASHINGTON, May 15, 2006 –Save The Children today released its annual Mothers’ Index that ranks the best - and worst - places to be a mother and a child. The Index ranks the status of mothers and children in 125 countries based on 10 indicators pertaining to health and education.

Save the Children, a U.S. - based independent global humanitarian organization, retained NCI Communications, Inc. to complete a photo/video documentation project to support the production of the report and its multimedia materials for the web.
“We were very proud to play a small role in this project,” said NCI Vice President Mark Amann. “We traveled with Save The Children staff to Mali in West Africa and then to Malawi. For the web videos we focused on children benefiting from several lifesaving programs including Kangaroo Mother Care. It is powerful experience to see simple, inexpensive programs saving young lives. Documenting these stories was a real honor.”

Kangaroo Mother Care involves encouraging new mothers to practice “skin-to-skin” contact with their newborns. Kangaroo Mother Care has already helped save lives among newborns in Malawi, especially among low birth weight and pre-term babies. In Malawi, 20 percent of all newborns are born with low birth weight, and more than 20,000 newborns die.

Save the Children’s State of the World’s Mothers 2006 report takes a look at the inextricable link between the health and survival of mothers and babies, narrowing in on simple, affordable solutions that can help save 3 million of the 4 million newborns who die every year.

Scandinavian countries sweep the top rankings of the best places to be a mother, while countries in sub-Saharan Africa dominate the bottom tier. The United States ties for 10th place with the United Kingdom.

Download the report.
Learn more about Kangaroo Mother Care and to watch the video.