`M' is for mother, not marriage - single mothers - Brief Article - Statistical Data Included

American Demographics, May, 2000 by Jennifer Lach

"First comes love, then comes marriage, then comes baby in the baby carriage" may be the ditty, but not everyone follows the prescribed course. In the early 1990s, one out of two births to women under age 30 was either conceived or born outside of marriage. That's up from just one out of six births in the early 1930s, according to Trends in Premarital Childbearing, a report from the U.S.

Census Bureau. Fewer pregnant single women are opting for a shotgun wedding, as well. In the early 1960s, 60 percent of all premaritally pregnant women under 30 married before the birth of their child. Three decades later, that figure had dropped to 23 percent. Rising rates of cohabitation may explain part of the story, the authors say, as well as a growing opinion by women that they may be better off single than entering a potentially unstable marriage.