Manama: Saudi Arabia is the best country to be a mother in the Arab world, the Save the Children’s 2014 State of the World’s Mothers report shows.

Bahrain came in at the second place in the Arab world, followed by Qatar, United Arab Emirates and Kuwait.

Saudi Arabia ranked 38th globally in the Mothers’ Index released this month, while Bahrain was 50th, Qatar 51st, the UAE 52nd and Kuwait 57th. Oman, the sixth member of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), was eighth in the Arab world and 67th internationally.

While the GCC overwhelmingly dominated in the Arab world, Scandinavian countries topped the annual list internationally.

Finland was first, followed by Norway, Sweden and Iceland. Denmark was sixth right after The Netherlands.

The top eight positions in the report were held by European countries, mainly from the north, and the first non-European state was Australia.

The United States, which 15 years ago ranked in the top five, has fallen to number 31 out of 178 countries, the report said.

The Mothers’ Index scores countries on mothers’ and children’s health, educational, economic and political status.

The worst ten countries on the list are in Africa.

Somalia, affected by both armed conflict and natural disasters, is at the bottom of the ranking.

In Somalia, one woman in 16 is likely to die of a maternal causes, while one child in seven does not reach his fifth birthday.

This contrasts sharply with Finland, where maternal deaths affect less than one in 12,000 women, and the probability of a child dying before the age of five is one in 345.

The report concluded that countries faring the worst were those affected by humanitarian crises — this year and throughout the report’s history.

Worldwide, more than half of all maternal and child deaths occur in areas made more fragile by conflict and disasters.

“Nothing will stop a mother from trying to keep her children safe and protected,” Carolyn Miles, president and CEO of Save the Children, said. “But when disaster strikes, whether it is a war in Syria, a tornado in Oklahoma or a typhoon in the Philippines, women and children are often at the greatest risk — up to 14 times more likely to die than men. Fortunately, our evidence also shows we can save and dramatically improve the lives of mothers and children, even in the most challenging places to live, if we invest in the services they need.”

According to the report, war-torn Afghanistan, which ranked as the worst place to be a mother in both 2010 and 2011, moved up 32 places in the ranking this year.

“This improvement is related to the country’s investment in midwife training, so mothers do not have to give birth alone; changing policies in education, which allowed more girls to attend school, and immunisation programmes and other health measures for young children,” the report said.