I found this interesting news on motherhood in the US vs other countries.
A woman in the US has a pregnancy death risk that is five times h igher than a woman living in Bosnia, Greece or Italy, and ten times as big as an Irishi woman, states the report on motherhood in various countries.
On child mortality_ Eight in a thousand children in the US dies before the age of five, placing US on the same level as Slovakia and Montenegro.
An American child has twice the chance of daying before it is five than a child in Finland, Iceland, Sweden or Singapore.
Only 61 per cent of children in the USA attend a kindergarten, making the United States number seven among developing countries, counting from the bottom that is. No other industrialialised country has such a bad mother maternity arrangement as the US (considing both the length and salary).
Norway is the country which has the honor of being number 1 on being a mother.
The maternity leave is currently at at 44 weeks with full salary (based on your job before the pregnancy. It is a maxium of the salary-compensation). If one opts for 80 per cent coverage the duration is 54 weeks. A minimum of six of those weeks are to be taken by the father of the child. The parents can split the time as they want.
For those who are not working prior to the pregnancy (rather uncommon in Norway), a single amount of 35.009 are paid to the mother (that is roughly 6000 US dollars).