According to a preliminary report from the National Center for Health Statistics at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, released Wednesday, 4.31 million babies were born in the United States in 2007, more than in any other year, including the post-war “baby boom” of the 1950s.
Moreover, the rate of premature births and low birth weight babies declined after a long upward trend. More exactly, the percentage of low birth-weight babies (less than 2,500 grams) decreased from 8.3 percent in 2006 to 8.2 percent in 2007. This is the first decline since 1984.
Also, the rate of preterm births (babies delivered after less than 37 weeks of pregnancy) decreased 1 percent, to 12.7 percent in 2007. Since the early 1980s, the preterm rate in the United States has increased by more than a third. Premature babies are more likely to have medical and developmental problems.
On the other hand, Caesarean deliveries rose for an 11th straight year to a new high – up 2 percent to 31.8 percent of births.
“Every pregnant woman in the U.S. should be alarmed by this rate. Half or more of Cesareans are avoidable and over-using major surgery on otherwise healthy women and babies is taking a toll,” Pam Udy, president of the International Cesarean Awareness Network advocacy group, said in a statement.
The report also showed that the birth rate for teens rose 1 percent between 2006 and 2007, from 41.9 to 42.5 births per 1,000 females aged 15-19. Birth rates for females aged 10-14 remained unchanged but increased for women in their 20s, 30s and early 40s.
Bill Albert, spokesman for the Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy in Washington DC, said the high rates of pregnancy among teens are likely the result of changing sexual habits, lower use of contraceptives and inadequate sex education.
“Consider that we’ve had 14 straight years of progress. It might be that complacency has become the enemy of progress,” Albert said.
The report also found that the share of births to unmarried women of all ages reached a record high of 40 percent of all births in 2007, the most recent data available. This continued a marked trend upward in unwed births since 2002.
The US fertility rate increased 1 percent in 2007, to 69.5 births per 1,000 females aged 15-44, the highest rate since 1990. However, women today are giving birth to fewer children than they did in the 1950s, said Brady Hamilton, Co-author of the CDC report and statistician for the National Center for Health Statistics. And the latest baby boom probably will not carry on, if the US economic predicament continues.
“Certainly, the economy is one factor in people’s decision to have children,” Hamilton said.
