After a blip, teen pregnancy is back on the decline

Only a couple of months ago, a Guttmacher Institute report for the period 2006-2007 indicated that teen pregnancy was on the rise; an increase that troubled health experts because those numbers had been going down for more than a decade. Now, new figures released by the National Center for Health Statistics for 2007-2008 show that the previous year might have just been an outlier, because birth rates seem to be back on their way down.

Among the reports key findings:

• The 2008 preliminary estimate of births for the United States was 4,251,095, nearly 2 percent less than the record number of births ever registered in 2007.


• The 2008 preliminary crude birth rate (CBR) was 14.0 births per 1,000 total population, 2 percent less than the rate in 2007.


• The birth rate for U.S. teenagers dropped 2 percent in 2008 according to preliminary data. The decline reverses two consecutive years of increase that interrupted the 34 percent decline in teenage childbearing from 1991 to 2005.


• The preliminary birth rate for women aged 30-34 years in 2008 was 99.3 births per 1,000 women, a drop of less than 1 percent compared to 2007 (99.9). The number of births to women aged 30-34 years declined less than 1 percent in 2008. The rate for women aged 35-39 years also declined 1 percent in 2008, to 46.9 births per 1,000, from 47.5 in 2007.

The report also shows that births among Hispanic teens dropped to historic lows. Interestingly, the birth rate increased only for one age group: women over 40, and the number went up by 4 percent among women 40-44, the highest rate increase since 1967. This is attributed to new technologies that allow women to conceive later in life.Brady Hamilton, lead author on the study and researcher for the CDC's National Center for Health Statistics, said,"This increase is part of a general trend that we've seen over the past few decades. A rise in reproductive technology gives women more options and morewomen are choosing to postpone childbirthor have a second or third child later in life."

Many health officials suggested that the overall decline in birth rates was a result of the weakened economy:"The economy may have had some role,'' Stephanie J. Ventura of the National Center for Health Statistics told the Washington Post. "The economic downturn has been so severe that many people may be rethinking a lot of things, including having children.'' But since the birth rate among teens was demonstrably lower - and most teen pregnancies are unplanned - it's likely that other factors were also responsible for the numbers shift. Other health experts caution against looking too deeply into one- or two-year trends, which they say don't indicate much other than the fact that the numbers are now bouncing around instead of steadily declining.

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