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What's Good

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

•Hospital costs here are among the lowest in our survey.

•Nebraska allows greater dependent-related tax breaks than most.

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

•According to our survey of park departments, for every 10,000 residents, Omaha has 80 miles of public trails and pathways for hiking and stroller use, the 8th highest in our survey. The average city in our survey has 79 trail miles for every 10,000 residents.

•Omaha has 4.9 NICU facilities per 10,000 births, 9th highest in our survey. The average city in our survey has 3.4 NICU facilities per 10,000 live births.

•Omaha has 20 licensed home day cares for every 1,000 children under 4 years, the 9th highest in our survey. The average city in our survey has 13.

•Omaha's violent crime rate is 43 percent lower than average, the 8th lowest in our survey, in fact.

•Pedestrians have a 79 percent lower than average risk of being killed by a motor vehicle here-among the safest in our survey.

•According to the Urban Mobility Report from Texas A&M University, Omaha has one of the best commutes of any city in our survey, it takes only 18 percent longer to drive the same route during rush hour than in free-flowing traffic. That takes a lot of pressure off parents rushing to day care at the end of the day.

Needs Improvement

•Nebraska lacks progressive laws guaranteeing a nursing mother the right to breastfeed in public.

•Not much can be done about the weather, but the local climate can be extreme -- not conducive to getting out and working off pregnancy weight gain.

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

•There are no state laws requiring day care workers to undergo special SIDS prevention training. Many other states mandate such training.

•12 percent of pregnant women in Omaha admit to smoking during pregnancy, the 11th highest rate in our survey. Nationwide, 8 percent of pregnant women smoke.

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