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Miami Herald
2 days ago
- Health
- Miami Herald
The Teen Mom is Dying Out
While the birth rate has declined in general over the last 50 years, mothers aged between 15 and 19 have seen the most consistently steep fall. In 1975, there were 599,926 teen births in America – more than double the teen pregnancies recorded in 2024 (136,376), according to the U.N. Population Division. Among the teen births that do take place today, "the vast majority occur among folks who are 18 or 19," said Elizabeth Wildsmith, a family demographer and sociologist at Child Trends, a nonpartisan research organization. "Teen births have declined dramatically over the past several decades," she told Newsweek, citing a lower level of sexual activity among teenagers, a higher level of contraceptive use and wider social changes. "No easy answers," said Claire Brindis, co-director of the Adolescent and Young Adult Health National Research Center at the University of California, San Francisco. "No one factor can really explain the reductions," she told Newsweek, citing similar reasons to Wildsmith, along with improved access to education. Brindis also drew on the general trend of having children later, currently taking place across all age groups. "We have to give young people a lot of credit for being pregnancy-free," she said. Some 32 percent of high schoolers said they had ever had sex in 2023, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) most recent Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS). This is a decrease from the 47 percent who said they had ever had sex a decade earlier, in 2013, and significantly lower than in 1991, when 54 percent said they had ever had sex. "I am not sure we have a clear understanding yet of the role that digital/social media is playing in shaping how and when youth form relationships, including sexual relationships, or their thoughts and behavior around parenthood," Wildsmith said. "There is likely a mix of positive and negative impacts. For example, online resources, especially reliable sources that use evidence-based information, may help youth learn about various contraceptive methods and more easily access them," she continued. "Similarly, they can provide access to content around what a safe and healthy romantic relationship looks like." "At the same time, we know that health misinformation on social media platforms is a serious concern," she added. She went on to align the decline in sexual activity with "a decline in the proportion of youth that have ever dated." Brindis also spoke about cultural shifts, pointing to the pandemic when she said: "Perhaps another factor is a residual of COVID, with more young people hanging out in groups, after long periods of isolation, and less likely to end up only in pairs." "Ironically, while more teens are exposed to pornography through social media, they are less likely to feel comfortable talking to each other and being in a relationship," she added. But she went on to speak about the impact of increased education and the choices this has provided. "Clearly, access to education has been shown to be a huge motivator," Brindis said, "as young women are surrounded by role models, including their moms, who have improved their own educational status and who hold great expectations that their daughters can break more glass ceilings than they were able to themselves." "Young women are more likely to explore how to protect themselves, including delaying having sex, having fewer partners, if they are sexually active (which reduces their risk as more steady partners will increase the likelihood of conversations about birth control protection in the context of all their other dreams," she added. While "the dramatic decline in the teen birth rate since the early 1990s has occurred across all race/ethnic and socioeconomic groups," as Wildsmith said, the declines "have been somewhat uneven across groups and there are still large disparities in the teen birth rate across race, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status." For example, teen birth rates among Native (20.9), Hispanic (20.8), Pacific Islander (21.2), and Black (19.3) teens were more than double that of white teens (8.4) and over ten times higher than Asian teens (1.8) in 2023, according to a Congressional Research Service report published in April, which used data from the National Center for Health Statistics. "We should recognize that there continues to be segments who are more likely to be at risk-young people who are poor or low income, those who live in rural communities, with less education, and with less hope for economic opportunities continue to be more vulnerable," Brindis said. "The risks are that we don't continue to invest in young people across all groups, and especially women, if education opportunities are shut off, if economic options (as an alternative to going to college), if student loans are eliminated or more difficult to get, if families have more economic struggles, if access to birth control or other social support services, for example, many of these positive trends can evaporate," she added. Last month, Newsweek broke down how birth rates have changed across all age groups over the past 50 years. While mothers between the ages of 50 and 54 had no babies in 1975, this number gradually increased to more than 100 over the years and was 159 in 2024. People in their twenties have had fewer babies, often delaying children to their thirties, which has meant the number of births in this age group has increased. America is one of many countries around the world struggling with falling birth rates. Fertility rates are projected to average 1.6 births per woman over the next three decades, according to the Congressional Budget Office's latest forecast released this year. This number is well below the replacement level of 2.1 births per woman required to maintain a stable population without immigration. Many trying to tackle this issue have focused on public health policies and financial plans, often citing the 2008 financial crisis, its effect on housing, inflation and pay as a major contributor to why people delay having children, have fewer of them or to not have them at all. The Donald Trump administration has made this issue one of its priorities, with the White House exploring the possibility of giving women a "baby bonus" of $5,000, according to an April New York Times report. 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Yahoo
18-03-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
More older women becoming first-time moms amid U.S. fertility rate declines
Amid growing evidence of slowing fertility rates in the United States, a new report contained a pair of surprising details from two divergent age groups: A growing number of women older than 40 are having children and a record low number of teenagers are giving birth. The report, released earlier this month by the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), showed that the U.S. fertility rate — the average number of children born to a woman during her reproductive years — continued its decadeslong slide through 2023, with American women having an average of 1.62 children, compared to 1.66 in 2021 and 2022. Overall, the rate has declined 14% since 1990, driven largely by younger women under the age of 30 who are having fewer children. For the first time in 2023, there were more births among women 40 and older than there were to teenage girls, a trend which aligns with both long-sought public health goals of decreasing teen births, while reflecting medical advancements which have allowed older women to have healthy pregnancies. 'There's a flip in the age distribution,' said Elizabeth Wildsmith, a family demographer and sociologist at Child Trends, a nonpartisan research group. In 1990, adolescents accounted for almost 13% of all births; in 2023, they made up 4%. And most critically, the fertility rate for girls ages 10 to 14 dropped from 1.4 to almost zero, something Wildsmith called 'a success story' from a public health perspective. At the same time, demographers are still trying to discern why women are choosing to become pregnant and give birth later. The most recent data show that most births now occur to women ages 30 to 34, while a decade ago the cohort that was most likely to give birth was 25 to 29. As the average maternal age has increased, far more women ages 35 and older are also having children, according to the NCHS, part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention which tallies all known births in the U.S. From 1990 to 2023, the fertility rate for women ages 35 to 39 increased 71%, and for women ages 40 to 44, the rate increased 127%. Researchers say that there are a number of possible explanations for the gradual increase in the age of new mothers, including evolving social expectations and values; changes in technology and dating behavior; the economic burden of child rearing; and increasing college enrollment among women. 'All of those conditions shape when people want to start having children,' said Wildsmith, who also noted that when 'women are able to control their fertility,' other opportunities — including professional, political and economic — become easier to access. Teen births drop sharply While the national decline in teen births has been hailed by public health officials, that decrease has not been uniform across all states, according to federal data. Southern states from West Virginia to Texas have higher rates of teen births than other regions, and the teen birth rate in Mississippi, Arkansas and Louisiana is double that of the national rate. In Mississippi, for example, 53% of high school students did not use a condom the last time they had sex, according to a state youth risk behavior survey. Teen mothers are less likely to complete high school and, in Mississippi, about half of teen girls who give birth receive a high school diploma. Still, the teen birth rate in Mississippi has dropped precipitously from 46.1 in 2012 to 23.6 in 2021, according to state data. Dr. Samuel Jones, a family practice physician and the clinic director at the student health center at Jackson State University, said students can receive free or low-cost contraceptives, including birth control pills and long-acting methods such as injections and patches. 'We are advocates for healthy children,' he said. 'Unplanned pregnancies may have an effect on our college students. They are career bound, and many are dating for the first time.' Jones, who has practiced family medicine long enough in Mississippi that patients he knew as children are now parents themselves, says longer term contraceptives, including Depo Provera, an injectable long-acting birth control, have proved popular with teen patients -- and their parents. 'The pills were somewhat problematic because the dropout rate was higher,' he said, adding that routine shots of Depo Provera give many parents peace of mind that their children will be protected from unplanned pregnancy. The Affordable Care Act, signed by then-President Barack Obama in 2010, ushered in a new era of teen pregnancy prevention. The federal law required that preventative health care, which included all contraceptive products, be included with no co-pays or deductibles. States with the lowest teen birth rates include New England, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Utah, Washington, California and Wisconsin, where there seems to be a connection between lower rates and comprehensive sex education, said Dr. Aisha Mays, founder of the Dream Youth Clinic in Oakland, California, and a clinical researcher with the UCSF Bixby Center for Global Reproductive Health. Elements of those programs include medically accurate education about fertility anatomy, contraception, sexual consent and sexual readiness. And just as vital for teens, she said, is insurance coverage and access to contraception without parental consent 'so that young people can talk freely with a medical provider.' While many women become pregnant without medical intervention, advances in reproductive technology and expanded insurance coverage for fertility preservation and treatment have allowed women and couples to 'prioritize their career and life goals,' said Dr. Arianna Cassidy, a maternal-fetal medicine specialist at University of California, San Francisco. The risk of various pregnancy and fetal complications increases incrementally for women over age 35, she said. That includes the risk of certain genetic and chromosomal abnormalities including Down syndrome, and the risk of pre-eclampsia, gestational diabetes and postpartum hemorrhage. 'There's not a switch that goes on at age 35 where all these things are going to happen, it's more of a continuum,' she said. Some of those risks can be mitigated with proactive medical care such as taking baby aspirin during pregnancy for those with risk factors for pre-eclampsia; prescribing medication to control blood pressure and gestational diabetes; and better awareness about the dangers of postpartum hemorrhage. Adverse outcomes are still rare. The risk of pre-eclampsia, a dangerous hypertensive disorder that is poorly understood but remains a leading cause of maternal and perinatal mortality worldwide, is less than 5% among the general population of pregnant women. Among women older than 40, Cassidy said, the risk doubles to about 10%. 'We're seeing more and more people who come into pregnancy in their 40s who already have high blood pressure, kidney disease or diabetes,' she said. 'Age is not a modifiable thing.' This article was originally published on
NBC News
18-03-2025
- Health
- NBC News
More older women becoming first-time moms amid U.S. fertility rate declines
Amid growing evidence of slowing fertility rates in the United States, a new report contained a pair of surprising details from two divergent age groups: A growing number of women older than 40 are having children and a record low number of teenagers are giving birth. The report, released earlier this month by the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), showed that the U.S. fertility rate — the average number of children born to a woman during her reproductive years — continued its decadeslong slide through 2023, with American women having an average of 1.62 children, compared to 1.66 in 2021 and 2022. Overall, the rate has declined 14% since 1990, driven largely by younger women under the age of 30 who are having fewer children. For the first time in 2023, there were more births among women 40 and older than there were to teenage girls, a trend which aligns with both long-sought public health goals of decreasing teen births, while reflecting medical advancements which have allowed older women to have healthy pregnancies. 'There's a flip in the age distribution,' said Elizabeth Wildsmith, a family demographer and sociologist at Child Trends, a nonpartisan research group. In 1990, adolescents accounted for almost 13% of all births; in 2023, they made up 4%. And most critically, the fertility rate for girls ages 10 to 14 dropped from 1.4 to almost zero, something Wildsmith called 'a success story' from a public health perspective. At the same time, demographers are still trying to discern why women are choosing to become pregnant and give birth later. The most recent data show that most births now occur to women ages 30 to 34, while a decade ago the cohort that was most likely to give birth was 25 to 29. As the average maternal age has increased, far more women ages 35 and older are also having children, according to the NCHS, part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention which tallies all known births in the U.S. From 1990 to 2023, the fertility rate for women ages 35 to 39 increased 71%, and for women ages 40 to 44, the rate increased 127%. Researchers say that there are a number of possible explanations for the gradual increase in the age of new mothers, including evolving social expectations and values; changes in technology and dating behavior; the economic burden of child rearing; and increasing college enrollment among women. 'All of those conditions shape when people want to start having children,' said Wildsmith, who also noted that when 'women are able to control their fertility,' other opportunities — including professional, political and economic — become easier to access. Teen births drop sharply While the national decline in teen births has been hailed by public health officials, that decrease has not been uniform across all states, according to federal data. Southern states from West Virginia to Texas have higher rates of teen births than other regions, and the teen birth rate in Mississippi, Arkansas and Louisiana is double that of the national rate. In Mississippi, for example, 53% of high school students did not use a condom the last time they had sex, according to a state youth risk behavior survey. Teen mothers are less likely to complete high school and, in Mississippi, about half of teen girls who give birth receive a high school diploma. Still, the teen birth rate in Mississippi has dropped precipitously from 46.1 in 2012 to 23.6 in 2021, according to state data. Dr. Samuel Jones, a family practice physician and the clinic director at the student health center at Jackson State University, said students can receive free or low-cost contraceptives, including birth control pills and long-acting methods such as injections and patches. 'We are advocates for healthy children,' he said. 'Unplanned pregnancies may have an effect on our college students. They are career bound, and many are dating for the first time.' Jones, who has practiced family medicine long enough in Mississippi that patients he knew as children are now parents themselves, says longer term contraceptives, including Depo Provera, an injectable long-acting birth control, have proved popular with teen patients -- and their parents. 'The pills were somewhat problematic because the dropout rate was higher,' he said, adding that routine shots of Depo Provera give many parents peace of mind that their children will be protected from unplanned pregnancy. The Affordable Care Act, signed by then-President Barack Obama in 2010, ushered in a new era of teen pregnancy prevention. The federal law required that preventative health care, which included all contraceptive products, be included with no co-pays or deductibles. States with the lowest teen birth rates include New England, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Utah, Washington, California and Wisconsin, where there seems to be a connection between lower rates and comprehensive sex education, said Dr. Aisha Mays, founder of the Dream Youth Clinic in Oakland, California, and a clinical researcher with the UCSF Bixby Center for Global Reproductive Health. Elements of those programs include medically accurate education about fertility anatomy, contraception, sexual consent and sexual readiness. And just as vital for teens, she said, is insurance coverage and access to contraception without parental consent 'so that young people can talk freely with a medical provider.' Complications may increase with age While many women become pregnant without medical intervention, advances in reproductive technology and expanded insurance coverage for fertility preservation and treatment have allowed women and couples to 'prioritize their career and life goals,' said Dr. Arianna Cassidy, a maternal-fetal medicine specialist at University of California, San Francisco. The risk of various pregnancy and fetal complications increases incrementally for women over age 35, she said. That includes the risk of certain genetic and chromosomal abnormalities including Down syndrome, and the risk of pre-eclampsia, gestational diabetes and postpartum hemorrhage. 'There's not a switch that goes on at age 35 where all these things are going to happen, it's more of a continuum,' she said. Some of those risks can be mitigated with proactive medical care such as taking baby aspirin during pregnancy for those with risk factors for pre-eclampsia; prescribing medication to control blood pressure and gestational diabetes; and better awareness about the dangers of postpartum hemorrhage. Adverse outcomes are still rare. The risk of pre-eclampsia, a dangerous hypertensive disorder that is poorly understood but remains a leading cause of maternal and perinatal mortality worldwide, is less than 5% among the general population of pregnant women. Among women older than 40, Cassidy said, the risk doubles to about 10%. 'We're seeing more and more people who come into pregnancy in their 40s who already have high blood pressure, kidney disease or diabetes,' she said. 'Age is not a modifiable thing.'
Yahoo
25-02-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Your Best Life: Teen Leaders Speak Out
BALTIMORE, Md. (Ivanhoe Newswire) — Nearly 60% of children express sadness when considering the impact of the climate on animals and plants. A Child Trends report further reveals that over half of children experience fear about their future. A new generation is emerging to address this challenge. We spoke with teens, talking candidly about their perspectives on accountability and their plans for action. 'I would say one of my big worries is the illusion of time. Lots of people think that we have time to fix these things, but we've been saying that for years,' said 17-year-old Jordyn Chaimiti. 'The thing that worries me the most about climate change is how people from marginalized communities who aren't able to defend themselves against the threats of climate change … who aren't able to bounce back from an extreme weather event — how they'll be affected,' explained 17-year-old James Obasiolu. 'What worries me most is misinformation,' expressed 17-year-old Sarah Kc. Sarah, James, Jordyn — all three share a concern about how global warming will impact their lives. Who or what do they blame? 'Complacency,' said James. 'Ignorance,' said Jordyn. 'Misinformation,' said Sarah. They're on a mission to make a difference and they're not alone. A Pew Research Center survey found that a strong majority of young adults prioritize climate action. The Youth Climate Institute is an organization dedicated to empowering young people to become climate leaders, teaching teens about critical issues like carbon emissions, the environmental impact of fast fashion, food waste, and water pollution. 'A lot of our students are really involved in wanting to follow elected officials and support them in getting bills passed. I'm seeing the development of leaders,' said Youth Climate Institute Founder Ann Strozyk. And Jordan, James, and Sarah want other young people to understand their power. 'I have a voice,' stated Jordan 'I wish that kids would understand the impact that they have,' Sarah told Ivanhoe. 'The world will not remain this way if we don't take care of it,' said James. Parents can support their children to get involved in climate action, which research shows builds agency and reduces climate anxiety. The Youth Climate Institute was started during the pandemic by Strozyk, an environmental teacher in Maryland who wanted to challenge her kids and keep her students connected. Today there are 37 chapters across the country. They are hoping to add more this year. If you would like to start a chapter in your hometown, you can find out how at Contributors to this news report include: Marsha Lewis, Executive Producer; Matt Goldschmidt, Videographer; and Bob Walko, Editor. Produced by Child Trends News Service in partnership with Ivanhoe Broadcast News and funded by a grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF). To receive a free weekly e-mail on positive parenting from Ivanhoe, sign up at: Source: If this story or any other Ivanhoe story has impacted your life or prompted you or someone you know to seek or change treatments, please let us know by contacting Marjorie Bekaert Thomas at mthomas@ Sponsored by AGEWELL Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
