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HEALTH

Norway best in the world for mums: report

For the third year running, Norway has been named the best country in the world to be a mother.

Norway best in the world for mums: report
Getting the good news: Tove R Wang of Save the Children Norway and Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg (Photo: Terje Bendiksby/Scanpix)

The State of the World’s Mothers report, published for the 13th time by Save the Children, puts Norway at the top of a list of 165 countries.

”This shows that Norway’s policies for equality, children and the family work in practice,” said Tove R Wang, head of Save the Children Norway.

”But being the best brings its own responsibilities. Norway must now take the lead in the work to break the circle of poverty in the countries that are faring worst,”

Niger replaced Afghanistan as the worst place in the world to be a mother.

In Niger, a newborn baby girl will likely get four years of education and will have a life  expectancy of 56 years. A Norwegian girl, by contrast, will get 18 years of education and can expect to live to the age of 83.

In addition to education and life expectancy, the study also ranked countries in terms of factors such as the number of health staff in place when a child is born, the number of women using contraception, rules for maternity leave, and the number of children who die before they have turned five. In Niger, one in every seven children dies before the age of five.

”It’s good news that we top this ranking for the third year in a row, but it’s also important to keep a focus on the countries at the bottom of these statistics, ” said Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg.

”We will continue the work we are doing to improve the health of children and mothers in these countries.”

The Nordic region as a whole is well represented on the list, with Norway followed by Iceland, Sweden, New Zealand, Denmark and Finland.

According to Save the Children, Norway also tops the global breast feeding charts and is the best country in the world to be a woman.

The United States ranks as the 25th best place to be a mother.

“While the US has moved up in the rankings, ahead of last year’s 31st place, we still fall below most wealthy nations,” said Carolyn Miles, CEO of Save the Children.

“A woman in the US is more than 7 times as likely to die of a pregnancy-related cause in her lifetime than a woman in Italy or Ireland. When it comes to the number of children enrolled in preschools or the political status of women, the United States also places in the bottom 10 countries of the developed world.”

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HEALTH

Lengthy waiting times at Danish hospitals not going away yet: minister

Danish Minister for the Interior and Health Sophie Løhde has warned that, despite increasing activity at hospitals, it will be some time before current waiting lists are reduced.

Lengthy waiting times at Danish hospitals not going away yet: minister

The message comes as Løhde was set to meet with officials from regional health authorities on Wednesday to discuss the progress of an acute plan for the Danish health system, launched at the end of last year in an effort to reduce a backlog of waiting times which built up during the coronavirus crisis.

An agreement with regional health authorities on an “acute” spending plan to address the most serious challenges faced by the health services agreed in February, providing 2 billion kroner by the end of 2024.

READ ALSO: What exactly is wrong with the Danish health system?

The national organisation for the health authorities, Danske Regioner, said to newspaper Jyllands-Posten earlier this week that progress on clearing the waiting lists was ahead of schedule.

Some 245,300 operations were completed in the first quarter of this year, 10 percent more than in the same period in 2022 and over the agreed number.

Løhde said that the figures show measures from the acute plan are “beginning to work”.

“It’s positive but even though it suggests that the trend is going the right way, we’re far from our goal and it’s important to keep it up so that we get there,” she said.

“I certainly won’t be satisfied until waiting times are brought down,” she said.

“As long as we are in the process of doing postponed operations, we will unfortunately continue to see a further increase [in waiting times],” Løhde said.

“That’s why it’s crucial that we retain a high activity this year and in 2024,” she added.

Although the government set aside 2 billion kroner in total for the plan, the regional authorities expect the portion of that to be spent in 2023 to run out by the end of the summer. They have therefore asked for some of the 2024 spending to be brought forward.

Løhde is so far reluctant to meet that request according to Jyllands-Posten.

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