FLORIDA, USA (352today.com) – Miami-based personal finance website Wallethub has released a new study that finds Florida is the third worst state in America in which to have a baby.
The study compared all 50 states and the District of Columbia across metrics related to cost, health care accessibility and “baby-friendliness.” The data set included factors such as conventional charges for giving birth in a hospital, average annual infant-care costs and the number of pediatricians in the state, among many others.
The Sunshine State scored most poorly in the cost of a conventional hospital delivery, the cost of a Cesarean delivery, rate of low-weight births and the number of pediatricians and family medicine physicians per capita. Florida produced an average score in many to most criteria.
Which states scored worse than ours? Only Alabama and Mississippi.
The top five states, according to the study? Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Dakota, Rhode Island and New Hampshire, respectively.