Statistics show US women having more babies - Brief Article - Statistical Data Included

AORN Journal, April, 2002

The birth rate in the United States has increased for women of all age groups with the exception of teenagers, according to a Feb 12, 2002, news release from the National Center for Health Statistics. Data from a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report indicate that women are having more children now than at any time in almost the past 30 years.

Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, the average number of children born to US women during a lifetime was fewer than two. In 2000, the average birth rate was 2.1, which is considered the rate of population replacement. The birth rate increased for the third consecutive year following nearly a decade of decline. Conversely, the birth rate for girls ages 15 to 19 fell from a record high of 62.1 births per 1,000 girls in 1991 to 48.5 births per 1,000 girls in 2000, a decline of 22%.

The report also includes the following findings.

* The percentage of women who smoked during pregnancy was 12.2% in 2000, a decline of more than one-third since 1989.

* The rate of triplet and higher-order multiple births has declined for the second year in a row, after large increases from 1980 to 1998.

* The rate of cesarean deliveries has increased for four consecutive years, to nearly 23% in 2000.

* Births to unmarried women accounted for 33.2% of total births in 2000.

Women Are Having More Children, New Report Shows Teen Births Continue to Decline (news release, Hyattsville, Md: Notional Center for Health Statistics, Feb 12, 2002) http:/www.cdc.gov/nchs/releoses/02news/women births.htm (accessed 13 Feb 2002).