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What's Good

•According to data from the CDC, maternal mortality in Arizona is especially low.

•Phoenix babies are 20 percent less likely than average to be born with low birth weight.

•21 percent of babies in Arizona are born via Cesarean section, among the lowest in our survey. The average is 27 percent.

•87 percent of Phoenix mothers attempt breastfeeding. That's the 7th highest percentage of any city in our report. The average for cities in our survey is 75 percent.

•14.6 percent of Phoenix mothers breastfeed their babies exclusively (meaning no solids, formula or other liquids) for 6 months or longer as recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics. That's the 10th highest scoring city in this category. The average for our survey is 12 percent.

•According to our survey of park departments, for every 10,000 residents, Phoenix has 272 miles of public trails and pathways for hiking and stroller use, the 10th highest in our survey. The average city in our survey has 79 trail miles for every 10,000 residents.

•With one acre of parkland for every 40 residents, there's 66 percent more public park space than average here, relative to population.

•Arizona stands out in a measure of legislation related to cord blood education, research and related issues.

•State laws require stringent background checks for day-care workers.

Needs Improvement

•9 percent of pregnant women here receive late or inadequate prenatal care. That's the 6th worst score in our survey, compared to an average of 5 percent.

•Air quality here is worse here than most cities in our survey. Air quality has been linked to childhood asthma and fertility rates, among other things.

•Phoenix has one doula for every 812 live births, the 11th lowest ratio in our survey. The national average is one doula per 649 live births.

•Expecting and new moms have few parks: Phoenix's ratio of parks to residents is 1 : 7,641. The average in our survey is 1 : 3,790.

•State laws do not require health insurance companies to provide or offer any fertility-related services.

•Phoenix has 0.6 NICU facilities per 10,000 births, 2nd lowest in our survey. The average city in our survey has 3.4 NICU facilities per 10,000 live births.

•Phoenix has a limited number of high-risk pediatricians, 69 percent less than average per capita and the 8th lowest in our survey.

•Phoenix has fewer OB-GYNs than average, the 7th lowest in our survey.

•There are just 4.4 licensed day care centers for every 1,000 children under 4 years. The average city in our survey has 5.9.

•Pedestrians have a 13 percent higher than average risk of being killed by a motor vehicle here-among the most dangerous in our survey.