Mother’s Day is coming up on May 11th, and in preparation the Save the Children organization disclosed its 15th Annual State of the World’s Mothers global report. This report gathers information on women and children in 178 different countries, and includes a Mother’s Index which ranks them in order of best and worst places to be a mother.

Ranking was based on factors including infant mortality rate, gross national income per capital, maternal death rates, and percentage of women involved in politics. The United States didn’t crack the top ten this year, landing at number 31. The U.S. has fallen significantly from number 30 in 2013, and number 25 in 2012. This decrease in the rankings can be boiled down to a few major factors, such as mother and infant death rates, and percentage of women in politics.

Taking a look at the top ten places to be a mother, it’s easy to deduce where the U.S. falls short. Finland takes first place, followed by Norway and Sweden. Scandinavian countries dominated the rankings due in part to their maternal death rate; less than 1 in 12,000 women are affected by maternal death, while women in America face a 1 in 2,400 chance of dying due to pregnancy related causes. This could be attributed to American women dealing with more high-risk pregnancies, because of more cases of hypertension and obesity.

In addition, American children under the age of 5 face a 7.1 in 1,000 risk of death, while the under-5 mortality rate in Finland is only 1 in 345. Statistically speaking, an American child is three times more likely to die before their fifth birthday than a child living in country from the top 3. The rest of the top ten in descending order are Iceland, Netherlands, Denmark, Spain, Germany, Australia, and Belgium. These countries succeed not only in child and maternal health, but also in education of women and response to emergencies and disasters.

Among the worst places to raise a child was Somalia, Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Niger. Majority of the countries in the bottom ten are in the middle of political conflict, which renders the areas unfit for raising children. Healthcare is also a factor in mother and child safety; many children and women die from diseases such as pneumonia, diarrhea, and malnutrition-conditions which are largely preventable.

As a result, the infant death rate in Somalia is 1 in 7, while 1 in 16 women die due to pregnancy related causes. However, all hope is not lost for these countries. Last year, the worst place to be a mother was Afghanistan, but after providing education for female citizens the country rose 30 spots in the ranking and after providing women and children with basic health care, Nepal increased 60 places in the rankings. Bettering mother and child living conditions in these countries seems to rely on improving education and health care for women.

When a couple gets officially married, you are probably used to seeing the woman take her new husband’s surname. And when that occurs, some of you are probably wondering, is that a required thing to do?

The answer to that question is, no. Women are entitled to their maiden name. However, it is generally a tradition or custom to take on the husband’s surname.

Depending on the state you live in, there can be a statutory authority regarding name change upon marriage. In some states, the woman usually has several options. She can use her birth surname, her spouse’s surname, or a combination of both her surname and her spouse’s surname (which is generally hyphenated).

There are, however, a few states that won’t allow a woman those options. When she is married, she is essentially required as a wife to take her husband’s surname.

If a woman would like to take her spouse’s surname, it us not just an easy 1-2-3 step process. Again, depending on the state that you reside in, they will provide a name change procedure for you. Usually, an individual will be required to fill out an application or petition that will be filed with the courts.

The application will ask for general information such as: the legal name, the name the person wishes to take on, birthdate, age, etc. Name change applications generally take a while to be processed, but it is usually very rare that an application is denied. If you have legitimate reasons for wanting to do a name change, your request will likely be granted.

Now you all are probably wondering, what about a divorce? Do I get to keep my surname or do I have to go back to my maiden name? The answer to that question is, it is completely up to you. The woman has the choice of taking back her maiden name or keeping her married surname.

Reaching a divorce settlement agreement is mostly about dividing marital assets. After all, there’s the home, vehicles, bank accounts, stock portfolios, cash, art, etc.

And, then some of you who are in the process of getting a divorce might be wondering who gets certain marital assets like airline miles. This might seem a bit trivial, but it also can be important to those who fly frequently.

Some of you might think that something like airline miles seems trivial compared to other marital assets like real estate, bank accounts, stocks and bonds, furniture and vehicles. However, for those of you who spend a lot of time flying, those airline miles could really pay off and help you save money. Hundreds of thousands of frequent flyer miles can help contribute to numerous travel trips.

So, how exactly do the airline miles get sorted out? The first step you should take when attempting to divide airline miles is to check the rewards program’s terms and conditions. For example, some programs specifically state in their terms and conditions that points cannot be transferred from one spouse to another in a divorce settlement.

If this is the case, it may be wise to assign a value to the rewards points and then negotiate something of equal value. There may be other ways to divide the miles. Some programs provide cash outs for points, in which case you can collect the cash and then split it. Maybe you can see if the program will divide the points into two separate accounts.

When it comes to negotiating a divorce settlement, airline miles really do come down to money. Think this through completely; don’t be hasty about your decision. If you make a good financial move elsewhere, you might just find you can still take a special trip that you will enjoy.

If you’re going through a divorce and have questions regarding dividing your assets, including your frequent flyer miles, a family law attorney might be able to help you come to a divorce settlement that you can both agree to.

Contact the family law office of Holstrom, Sissung, Marks & Anderson, located in Orange, San Bernardino and Riverside Counties. We might be able to help you negotiate issues such as division of property, child custody, child support and spousal support in a more amicable manner than you would have otherwise.