Health

Oh Baby! U.S. Births Soar

By David Hancock

February 12, 2002 / 2:42 PM EST / CBS

American women, supported by a decade-long economic boom, are having more children than at any time in three decades — 2.1 on average in a lifetime, the government said Tuesday.

The spike means that for the first time since 1971, women are producing enough children to fully replace the population, the National Center for Health Statistics said.

The center reported 4,058,814 births in 2000, the latest year for which figures were available — up 2.5 percent from 1999. It was the first time since 1993 that births topped 4 million.

Researchers said the roaring economy of the 1990s was likely a major factor, helping potential parents feel more comfortable about supporting a family.

"That would have affected all groups," said NCHS demographer Stephanie Ventura, who co-wrote the report. "Their financial security was increasing, and they could afford additional children. And then we had this continuing increase in postponed childbearing."

The national birth total breaks down to an average of 2.13 children for every woman throughout childbearing age — 15 to 49 years old. The government uses 2.1 as the figure necessary for a population to fully replace itself.

The report showed increased fertility in 2000 for all age groups except teen-agers. Births to 15- to 19-year-olds dropped to 48.5 for every 1,000 women, an all-time low. The teen birth rate was 49.6 in 1999.

"The credit goes to the teens themselves," said Sarah Brown, director of the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy. "There are only two ways these rates can go down — less sex and more contraception. There's evidence that these teens are doing both."

Researchers believe the strong economy, coupled with a strong fear of sexually transmitted diseases, probably played a role in cutting teen births, which dropped 22 percent in the decade.

"They could see they should be spending time improving their education and occupational skills, and postponing marriage and childbearing," Ventura said.

But the overall increase in American fertility does not necessarily mean families will be larger several decades from now, researchers said. The figures could drop over the next few years if younger women decide their families are large enough.

The 104-page report, "Births: Final Data for 2000," provides health officials a remarkably detailed batch of statistics that can show what health messages are working — and what isn't getting through.

White, Asian/Pacific Islander and American Indian women all had total fertility rates of 2.1, black women had a fertility rate of 2.2 and Hispanic women had an average of 3.1 children.

The percentage of women who smoked during pregnancy fell to — 12.2 percent, a drop of more than one-third since 1989. Women who smoke are more likely to have low-birthweight babies and to lose babies to sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS or crib death).

The rate of cesarean deliveries rose for the fourth year in a row nd now stands at nearly 23 percent. The United States has one of the highest rates of cesarean section in the world.

Just over a third of all births were to unmarried women, the report said.