The focus of the Save the Children 13th annual State of the World's Mothers report is on the 171 million children globally who due to the physical and mental effects of poor nutrition in the earliest months of life do not have the opportunity to reach their full potential. The report using different Indices, ranks countries and shows which ones are doing the best and which are doing the worst at providing nutrition during the critical period of development that starts during a mother’s pregnancy and goes through until a child’s second birthday. The report assesses six key nutrition solutions, including breastfeeding, that have the greatest potential to save lives, and demonstrates how these solutions are affordable, even in the world’s poorest countries.

The indexes employed in the study are: The Infant and Toddler Feeding Scorecard - ranks 73 developing countries on measures of early child nutrition The Breastfeeding Policy Scorecard - examines maternity leave laws, the right to nursing breaks at work and other indicators to rank 36 developed countries on the degree to which their policies support women who want to breastfeed The Mothers’ Index - evaluates the status of women’s health, nutrition, education, economic well-being and political participation to rank 165 countries, both in the industrialized and developing world, to show where mothers and children fare best and where they face the greatest hardships.