For the second straight year, Finland emerged as the best place to be a mother from out of the 178 countries ranked by London-based non-governmental organization Save the Children.

The 2014 state of the world's mothers index, released by Save the Children on Tuesday, also ranked Singapore as the best place to be a mother in Asia and considered Somalia, Congo, Mali and Niger as the worst places to have children.

Like Us on Facebook

Finland was closely followed by Norway and Sweden in the rankings that showed where mothers fare best and where they face the greatest hardships. The index has been produced annually since 2000.

Completing the top 10 were Iceland, the Netherlands, Denmark, Spain, Germany, Australia and Belgium while the bottom 10 include Guinea-Bissau, Central African Republic, Sierra Leone, Nigeria, Chad and Cote d'Ivoire.

Finland topped the list based on the following criteria: maternal health, children's well-being, education status, economic status, and political status.

According to the Index, lifetime risk of maternal death in Finland is 1 in 12,200 while under-5 mortality rate is 2.9 per 1,000 live births. Finland's expected number of years of formal schooling is also high at 17 while the participation of women in national government also reached 42.5 percent in the country.

Finland's gross national income per capita was among the highest at US$46,490, the Index showed.

In Asia, Singapore has taken the lead as the best place to be a mother in the region for the second straight year. It ranked 15^th in the global Index, way higher than its Asian counterparts, including Japan, South Korea, and Malaysia, which ranked 32^nd, 30^th and 68^th, respectively. Myanmar was the worst place to be a mother in Southeast Asia.

Aside from releasing the ranking, Save The Children, also said in the 2014 state of the world's mothers report that an estimated 800 mothers and 18,000 children under the age of 5 die each day from largely preventable causes.