Here in America 17 pregnant women die for every 100,000 births. In Australia and Sweden by contrast, there are only five maternal deaths for every 100,000 births.

The figure is six in Ireland, seven in Germany and Canada, and eight in Norway, according to a recent study in the medical journal The Lancelet.

To be competitive about life-saving, in Slovakia the rate is six maternal deaths per 100,000 childbirths. Slovakia spends $565.00 per capita on health care; Americans spend over $6,000.00 per person on health, as reported in "The Value of Nothing" by Raj Patel.

For minority populations, Patel reports, the numbers are getting worse, not better. "If the African American population rate in the United States were a separate country, [it] would be ranked below Uzbekistan, which has a maternal mortality rate of 24 per 100,000, and where the average income per person is $840.00 per year."

But there is some good news to celebrate. "The number of women dying due to complications during pregnancy and childbirth has decreased by 34 percent from an estimated 546,000 in 1990 to 358,000 in 2008," according the World Health Organization. Not good enough, but let's be happy for the 188,000 female lives saved.

"Every day, about 1000 women died due to these complications in 2008. Out of the 1,000, 570 lived in sub-Saharan Africa, 300 in South Asia and five in high-income countries. The risk of a woman in a developing country dying from a pregnancy-related cause during her lifetime is about 36 times higher compared to a woman living in a developed country," the report adds.

In the United Kingdom (with its single payer, universal, socialized health care system), the rate is eight women per 100,000 births.

Some politicians believe that America has the best health care system in the world. Is that true?

Italy is the safest place in the world to give birth. Only one woman in 100,000 dies in childbirth. For pregnant women, Italy -- a single-payer, nationalized, universal health care system -- is indeed "la dolce vita."