Which are the top countries for postpartum care?

Whether you and your partner have already had your first child, or you’re thinking of trying for one soon, you’re probably already aware of just how important support from postpartum care can be in the weeks preceding the birth of your child – both for yourself and the health of your newborn.

But while postpartum support is certainly getting better across the globe, there’s still room for improvement in the healthcare systems of many countries. As experts in comparing health insurance, we want to see which countries have truly embraced postpartum care as an essential part of their medical infrastructure.

To find out, we ranked 35 countries around the world, including Australia, the United Kingdom, and the US, on a variety of core factors, to see how well they catered to postpartum depression support.

These factors included childcare costs, and the number of midwives and nurses employed, as well as the average length of maternity and paternity leave available to new parents in that country. We then took all our factors and scored them before using these totals to rank each country out of 100 for postpartum care.

Here’s what we discovered!

1. Norway

The number one country for postpartum care according to our study is located in Scandinavia – specifically Norway – with a total care score of 65.94 out of 100!

Norway topped our list for both educational spending per student at $20,642, while also coming joint third for educational enrolment, with 97% of Norwegian children entering the school system by the ages of three to four.

On top of this Norway also had the fourth-highest number of midwives and nurses per 10,000 people (188.9), as well as placing sixth and tenth for maternity and paternity leave length with an average of 86 and 15 days for each.

In fact, the only areas Norway tended to struggle with are childcare costs, where it only placed 11^th (which is still very good), seeing 7% of a family’s average salary going towards childcare costs, as well as for the average payment rate for maternity leave.

Interestingly, Norway placed 27^th for this latter factor with women getting the equivalent of just 44% of their total salary while on maternity leave – which is even more unusual when you consider that they placed second for average paternity pay at 92.3%.

2. Finland

Staying in Scandinavia for our second-place country, we’re hopping across Sweden and the Baltic Sea to Finland. Boasting an excellent care score of 65.61 (only 0.33 points behind Norway), Finland secured its place in the top five by having the most nurses and midwives per 10,000 people at 521.8 – that’s 304.6 more than the second country for this factor!

Of course, this is not the only factor in which Finland performed well. It was also the second-highest country for maternity leave length with 161 weeks, while also sitting ahead of Norway for paternity leave length, placing eighth with 16.2 weeks.

However, there are a few areas that keep Finland from just reaching the top spot, especially where maternity and paternity pay is concerned. Here, Finland only ranked 33^rd (24.2%) and 16^th (65.0%) for each of these factors respectively, while also coming in bottom for the top five for educational enrolment at 86% and childcare costs (16.0%).

3. South Korea

As for the country taking our third spot for postpartum care, we’re flying all the way over to the other side of the world to South Korea, which managed a total care score of 62.08! Topping out our list for paternity leave length at 54 weeks, South Korea ranked well across all our factors, including being the fourth-best country for childcare costs as well (4.0%).

Overall, South Korea came ninth for maternity leave at 64.9 and joint fourth for educational enrolment at 96%. It also placed middle of the table for educational student spending, placing 15^th with an average budget of $15,858 per person.

However, much like Finland, South Korea is held back by its low rankings in other core areas, sitting in the 23^rd spot for maternity leave pay (47.2%) and 26^th for paternity pay (40.9%), which, while putting both parents on equal footing in this area, could be improved upon.

4. Sweden

Moving back to Scandinavia once again, the fourth place in our index goes to Sweden. Being just beaten to the third spot by only 0.01 points, Sweden still holds a more than respectable care score of 62.07. This is in large part thanks to its high number of midwives and nurses per 10,000, which totaled 217 and gave it second place in this factor.

Sweden averaged very well in all other areas too, including being fifth for educational enrolment rate (95%) and fifth for childcare costs at 5%, as well as being third in our top five for paternity pay at 75.8% (and ninth overall).

Much like South Korea, Sweden has weak spots, such as being 11^th for educational spending ($17,107) and placing 17^th for maternity leave pay at 61.8% (though it was still the second-best out of our top five). Still, these lower factor rankings for Sweden are all around the middle of the table, hence its high placement in our ranking.

5. Slovenia

Finally, to round out our top five, we have one of Europe’s smaller countries – Slovenia. Scoring 61.82 out of 100 for postpartum care, Slovenia comes in top for average maternity pay at a whopping 100%, with the same being true for its average paternity pay as well!

Of course, these are not the only factors in Slovenia’s favour. It also ranked joint ninth for educational enrolment (91.0%), 11^th for childcare costs (7.0%), and 16^th for educational spending ($13,205) – all of which put it closer to the middle of the table for these factors but still in respectable positions.

Slovenia only placed middle of the table for midwives and nurses, again being 16^th in this area (105.9). Being middle of the table here is no bad thing, however, it’s also the main reason for Slovenia only just cracking into the top five.

How do other countries handle postpartum care?

So, now that we’ve looked at our top five countries, how did some of the more well-known nations fare in our ranking?

Looking at Australia first, you may or may not be shocked to learn that we only placed 25^th overall, landing mostly below the middle of the table for factors like childcare costs (ranking 23^rd with 16%), as well as being 29^th for paternity leave and educational enrolment, with 74% of children aged 3-4 in education and 2 weeks leave respectively.

The same is sadly also true for maternity leave, where just 18 weeks are given, putting Australia 30^th for this factor. Still, it’s not all bad news! Australia did place eighth overall for midwives and nurses per 10,000 at 137.1, and 13^th when it comes to educational spending with $16,285.

As for other well-known countries, the United Kingdom fared a little better than Australia, coming one spot below (26^th). However, while maternity/paternity leave and pay may also be lacking here, the UK did come first for educational enrolment (100.0%) and sixth for educational spending ($17,706), helping to keep it from placing at the very bottom.

Finally, when looking at the United States, as you’ll see below, they certainly came off worse for our total ranking.

Which countries ranked lowest for postpartum care support?

When it comes to the three countries that have the unenviable position of placing at the bottom of our postpartum care ranking, the United States sadly takes the 35^th spot with an abysmal care score of 19.70.

Placing dead last for paternity pay (0%), paternity leave (0 weeks), maternity pay (0%), maternity leave (0 weeks), and total childcare costs (40.0%), the USA has a lot of ground to cover if it wants to bring its postpartum care support up to the standards of other smaller countries.

Then, just above America, we have Türkiye, which scored 26.71 out of 100. Interestingly, Türkiye offers 100% paternity leave pay and 90% maternity pay, putting it joint first and second in these categories overall. However, with only a single week’s paternity leave and 16 weeks of maternity leave, Türkiye is not ideally suited for consistent postpartum support.

Lastly, coming 33^rd overall, we have Switzerland, with a care score of 26.72, which had the second lowest rate of educational enrolment at 26.0%, alongside average maternity and paternity leave times of 14 weeks and two weeks respectively. However, thanks to reasonable maternity and paternity pay of 55.9% each, Switzerland avoids the very lowest spots.