| La. teenage birthrate drops 24%

By MICHELLE MILLHOLLON mmillhollon@theadvocate.com Advocate staff writer

Louisiana's teenage birthrate is dropping, tracking a national trend, a study shows.

Between 1991 and 2001, births to mothers between the ages of 15 and 19 dropped 24 percent in the state, and 26.2 percent nationwide, said a report this month from the National Center for Health Statistics.

The center's report shows about 58 births for every 1,000 Louisiana mothers between the ages of 15 and 19 in 2001.

In 1991, that number was about 76 births per 1,000 mothers between 15 and 19, the report shows.

The study gives a number of reasons for the decline in births to teen mothers.

"Since the early 1990s, a wide array of public and private initiatives have stressed the importance of preventing teenage pregnancy by abstinence and responsible behavior," the report says. "Contraceptive use among teenagers has also increased, especially condoms."

The numbers on teen births are included in a report on U.S. birth data posted on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Web site.

Another recent report this month by the same group shows that the average age of women giving birth to their first child is climbing in Louisiana.

In 2000, the median age of first-time mothers in Louisiana was 23 -- below the national average of 24.9, but up slightly from the state's 1990 median age of 22.6, the National Center for Health Statistics found.

The report cites several reasons for the older first-time mothers, including the use of contraceptives, career choices and education.

"From 1970 to 2000, the percent of women having completed four or more years of college nearly tripled, while the female labor force participation increased 39 percent," the report says.

Between 1990 and 2000, the average ages of mothers having their first child dropped in only two states -- Alaska and Wyoming. Despite the national spike in the ages of first-time mothers, more than half of women giving birth in the United States are in their 20s, the study said.

The National Center for Health Statistics report includes statistics on single mothers, Cesarean deliveries, low birth weights, fertility rates and teen mothers.

Among the data:

· Between 2000 and 2001, the number of births in Louisiana dropped significantly. Births also declined in Alabama and Mississippi.

· More than 80 percent of pregnant women in Louisiana received prenatal care in 2001.

· In 2001, 29.9 percent of all live births in Louisiana were done by Caesarean delivery. That's higher than the national rate of 24.4 percent or nearly one in four live births. In 2000, the rate of Caesarean deliveries in the nation was 22.9 percent.

· Only about half as many white mothers as black mothers in Louisiana had babies weighing less than 5 pounds, 8 ounces in 2001.

About 7 percent of white mothers in Louisiana had babies with low birth weights compared to 14.4 percent of black mothers.

· Louisiana fared well on filling in the blanks on birth records. Less than 1 percent of the records viewed for the study failed to report the mother's education level, length of gestation, tobacco and alcohol use and delivery method.

The only blemish was 5.6 percent of birth records failed to report the mother's weight gain.

-- Anonymous, December 22, 2002