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MILTON WVA---The Centers for Disease Control has released some startling statistics about teen pregnancy in West Virginia. The number of 15 to 17 year old girls giving birth in the state is up 17 percent. West Virginia is the only state with that kind of spike. Teen mother Julie Akers is raising two children. She was a sophomore in high school when she first got pregnant. She says it wasn't easy to grow up fast and she wants other teens to know about the realities of being a young mom. "It was every day just getting up, making bottles, changing...

To President Barack Obama and many other Democrats, Europe continues to exercise something of a fatal attraction. The “European dream” embraced by these politicians — as well as by many pundits, academics and policy analysts — usually consists of an America governed by an expanded bureaucracy, connected by high-speed trains and following a tough green energy policy. One hopes that the current crisis gripping the E.U. will give even the most devoted Europhiles pause about the wisdom of such mimicry. Yet the deadliest European disease the U.S. must avoid is that of persistent demographic decline. The gravity of Europe’s demographic...

Women should no longer assume they will give birth in hospital with a doctor on hand. In a watershed moment, leading medical experts declared that mothers should be given more opportunity to have babies at home because a maternity ward is not necessarily the 'safer option'. A report by the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists suggests that as many as a third of all women should give birth 'without a doctor going anywhere near them'. It calls for a radical shake-up in the NHS which could lead to thousands more women having babies at home, as was the case

PHOENIX (Reuters) - For the first time births have overtaken immigration as the main driver of dynamic growth in the U.S. Hispanic population, according to a new study released on Thursday The Pew Hispanic Center survey found the new trend especially evident among Mexican-Americans, who account for almost two thirds of the U.S. Latino population. The study, which drew on U.S. Census Bureau data and other government sources, noted the Mexican-American population grew by 7.2 million as a result of births in the decade to 2010, while new immigrants added 4.2 million people. ... The study found growth in the...

(SALT LAKE CITY)-The Salt Lake Tribune reports early indications show the number of babies born in Utah dropped for the second consecutive year in 2010. Jim Bradshaw, the director of planning information for Intermountain Healthcare, which delivers 55 percent of the state’s babies, blamed the economy as the impetus for reduced numbers. From 2009-2010, births at hospitals owned by IHC, MountainStar Hospitals and the University of Utah Health Care and Health Sciences dropped by 2.5 percent, or a little more than 1,000 births. Collectively, these hospitals combined for almost 43,000 births, well below the state average of 55,000. The state’s...

New statistics taken from NHS records of women who have just given birth show that white Britons now account for an average of just six in ten of those receiving maternity care. They also reveal the startling changes that a decade of record migration is having on different parts of the country. In some inner city areas the proportion of white British mothers slumps to fewer than one in ten. But the impact on parts of Middle England is even more staggering. NHS trusts which cover parts of the home counties - such as St Albans - report less than...

Taipei, May 14 (CNA) Taiwan's birth rate has been dwindling over the last few decades and had dropped to an average of 1.03 births per woman last year from 3.09 recorded in 1976, according to data released Friday by the Ministry of the Interior (MOI). The number of births in 2009 fell to 191,310 from 425,125 recorded in 1976, while the crude birth rate -- the annual number of births per 1,000 of the total population -- was only 8.29 last year, a big drop from 25.92 in 1976. Both figures are new record lows, the MOI statistics show. The...

<p>Minorities make up nearly half the children born in the U.S., part of a historic trend in which minorities are expected to become the U.S. majority over the next 40 years.</p> <p>In fact, demographers say this year could be the "tipping point" when the number of babies born to minorities outnumbers that of babies born to whites.</p>

Celebrities aren't the only ones giving their babies unusual names. Compared with decades ago, parents are choosing less common names for kids, which could suggest an emphasis on uniqueness and individualism, according to new research.

On Nov. 4, the hope and happiness seemed boundless for supporters of President-elect Barack Obama, leading some to speculate, with a wink and a nod, that in nine months there would be a virtual Obama baby boom -- a celebratory uptick in the national birthrate. But now, 40 weeks later -- the average human gestation period -- MSNBC is reporting the prediction has largely been nothing more than, well, false hope. In Chicago, ground zero for Obama's election celebration, area hospitals confirm that they have not seen a noticeable surge in births. "Research evidence gives scant support for a one-day...

snip Americans are having fewer babies snip “It’s the recession,” said Andrew Hacker, a sociologist at Queens College of the City University of New York. “Children are the most expensive item in every family’s budget, especially given all the gear kids expect today. So it’s a good place to cut back when you’re uncertain about the future.” In 2007, the number of births in the United States broke a 50-year-old record high, set during the baby boom. But last year, births began to decline nationwide, by nearly 2 percent, according to provisional figures released last week. Those figures from the...

Thousands of couples in India who agreed to put off having babies for at least two years after their wedding will collect cash payments this month as health officials attempt to curb the country's rapidly growing population. Neighbouring China shows the first signs of relaxing its strict policy of one child per couple in the face of an ageing population, India is searching for a way of restricting the size of families as the battle over scarce resources grows. The country's population stands at 1.2 billion and is expected to reach 1.53 billion by 2050. But increasing pressure on resources...

California had 14,570 fewer births in 2008 than in the previous year, a 2.6 percent drop that surprised demographers with its size. It was the first annual decline in births since 2001, when the state was last mired in a recession. While the economy is one likely cause, the migration of young Latinas in their prime childbearing years out of California, and a slowdown of illegal immigration, are ongoing factors that could cut into the state's future population growth if they continue. "In the kind of economy we have, it's possible that people are opting not to have children that...

Since Estonia regained independence, the birth rate of Estonians has been negative, but in 2008, nearly 600 Estonians more were born than died, writes EPL Online/LETA. The birth rate of the entire population of Estonia remained negative, however – in 2008, Estonia lost 647 residents. In the year 1992 – the first year after regaining of independence – Estonians' birth rate was minus 755, a year later the birth rate among Estonians had fallen to minus 2,731. The year 1994 was the worst one in terms of birth rate since regaining of independence – 4,323 persons more died than were...

A recent U.S. Bureau of Census report indicates that 40% of unwed births in the U.S. in 2007 were out of wedlock. In California that percentage was 41.1%. What the press failed to report however is that Latinos represented 65%, or about two thirds, of all the unwed births in California. As a category, Whites came in a distant second at nearly 19%. See retabulated U.S. Census data below: California Unwed Births 2007 Total Unwed Births: 232,966 Total Wed & Unwed Births: 566,352 Unwed Births: Latino 151,440 65.1% White 43,660 18.7% Black 22,879 9.8% Asian 12,630 5.4% American Indian 2,357...

ATLANTA – More babies were born in the United States in 2007 than any year in the nation's history, topping the peak during the baby boom 50 years earlier, federal researchers reported Wednesday. ... The birth rate rose slightly for women of all ages, and births to unwed mothers reached an all-time high of about 40 percent, continuing a trend begun years ago. More than three-quarters of these women were 20 or older.

PARIS (AFP) France cemented its status as Europe's fertility champion on Tuesday when fresh statistics showed women are having on average more than two children each, an increase from last year's birth rate. The second most populous country in the European Union after Germany, France began 2009 with 64.3 million inhabitants, 366,500 more than in 2008, according to the national statistics agency INSEE. While there are fewer women of child-bearing age in France, the birth rate has continued to climb, with 2.02 children on average born to every woman in 2008, up from 1.98 in 2007. Last year, more than...

"TOKYO (AFP) -- The number of children in Japan has fallen for the 27th straight year to hit a new low, the government said Monday in a sign of the country's rapidly ageing population. Children aged 14 or younger numbered 17,250,000 as of April 1, down by 130,000 from a year earlier, the internal affairs ministry said in an annual survey released to coincide with the May 5 Children's Day national holiday. The figure is the lowest since 1950 when comparable data started. The ratio of children to the total population sank for 34 years in a row to 13.5...

McALLEN, Texas (CBS News) ― It was 5 a.m. and CBS News national correspondent Byron Pitts is with a woman who is nine months pregnant. She's rushed to a south Texas hospital to undergo a C-section - a $4,700 medical procedure that won't cost her a dime. She qualifies for emergency Medicaid. She gave birth to a healthy, 8 1/2 pound baby boy - born in America. His Mexican mother gave him an American name: Eliot. Eliot is one of an estimated 300,000 children of illegal immigrants born in the United States every year, according to the Pew Hispanic Center....

ATLANTA - Bucking the trend in many other wealthy industrialized nations, the United States seems to be experiencing a baby boomlet, reporting the largest number of children born in 45 years. The nearly 4.3 million births in 2006 were mostly due to a bigger population, especially a growing number of Hispanics. That group accounted for nearly one-quarter of all U.S. births. But non-Hispanic white women and other racial and ethnic groups were having more babies, too. An Associated Press review of birth numbers dating to 1909 found the total number of U.S. births was the highest since 1961, near the...