It's a baby boomlet!

SenaxFlatulus · #1 (**permalink**) 01-16-2008, 12:11 AM

Quote:

Against the Trend, U.S. Births Way Up

Jan 16 01:37 AM US/Eastern
By MIKE STOBBE
AP Medical WriterATLANTA (AP) - 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 end of the baby boom. An examination of global data also shows that the United States has a higher fertility rate than every country in continental Europe, as well as Australia, Canada and Japan. Fertility levels in those countries have been lower than the U.S. rate for several years, although some are on the rise, most notably in France.
Experts believe there is a mix of reasons: a decline in contraceptive use, a drop in access to abortion, poor education and poverty.
There are cultural reasons as well. Hispanics as a group have higher fertility rates—about 40 percent higher than the U.S. overall. And experts say Americans, especially those in middle America, view children more favorably than people in many other Westernized countries.
"Americans like children. We are the only people who respond to prosperity by saying, `Let's have another kid,'" said Nan Marie Astone, associate professor of population, family and reproductive health at Johns Hopkins University.
Demographers say it is too soon to know if the sudden increase in births is the start of a trend.
"We have to wait and see. For now, I would call it a noticeable blip," said Brady Hamilton, a statistician with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Demographers often use the word boomlet for a small and brief baby boom.
To many economists and policymakers, the increase in births is good news. The U.S. fertility rate—the number of children a woman is expected to have in her lifetime—reached 2.1. That's the "magic number" required for a population to replace itself.
Countries with much lower rates—such as Japan and Italy, both with a rate of 1.3—face future labor shortages and eroding tax bases as they fail to reproduce enough to take care of their aging elders.
But the higher fertility rate isn't all good. Last month, the CDC reported that America's teen birth rate rose for the first time in 15 years.
The same report also showed births becoming more common in nearly every age and racial or ethnic group. Birth rates increased for women in their 20s, 30s and early 40s, not just teens. They rose for whites, blacks, Hispanics, American Indians and Alaska Natives. The rate for Asian women stayed about the same.
Total births jumped 3 percent in 2006, the largest single-year increase since 1989, according to the CDC's preliminary data.
Clearly, U.S. birth rates are not what they were in the 1950s and early 1960s, when they were nearly twice as high and large families were much more common. The recent birth numbers are more a result of many women having a couple of kids each, rather than a smaller number of mothers, each bearing several children, Astone said.
Demographers say there has been at least one boomlet before, around when annual U.S. births broke 4.1 million for two straight years before dropping to about 3.9 million in the mid-1990s. Adolescent childbearing was up at the time, but so were births among other groups, and experts aren't sure what explained that bump.
The 2006 fertility rate of 2.1 children is the highest level since To be sure, the fertility rate among Hispanics—3 children per woman—has been a major contributor. That's the highest rate for any group. In 2006, for the first time, Hispanics accounted for more than 1 million births.
The high rate probably reflects cultural attitudes toward childbirth developed in other countries, experts said. Fertility rates average 2.7 in Central America and 2.4 in South America.
Fertility rates often rise among immigrants who leave their homelands for a better life. For example, the rate among Mexican-born women in the U.S. is 3.2, but the overall rate for Mexico is just 2.4, according to the Pew Hispanic Center, a Washington-based research organization.
"They're more optimistic about their future here," said Jeff Passel, a Pew Center demographer. Some complain that many illegal immigrants come here purposely to have children. "The child is an automatic American citizen, thus entitled to all benefits of American citizens. This gives a certain financial incentive for people coming from other countries illegally to have children here," said John Vinson, president of the Virginia-based American Immigration Control Foundation.

More here:
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php...show_article=1

You don't think this too is Bush's fault do you?

Blade · #2 (**permalink**) 01-16-2008, 12:16 AM

Them anchor babies firin' off like a bag of microwave popcorn - whoopee!

Chesby05 · #3 (**permalink**) 01-16-2008, 01:04 AM

Yay! Babies!

(And I can tell you, before I was pregnant I would not have responded that way. Darn hormones. Just make you happy all the time... when you're not psychotically weepy)

The12thMan · #4 (**permalink**) 01-16-2008, 07:36 AM

Don't expect the psychosis to end when the baby comes, Chesby. Fair warning.

BuckNaked · #5 (**permalink**) 01-16-2008, 08:03 AM

Quote:

You don't think this too is Bush's fault do you?

Well technically he has done nothing to protect the borders nor has he established any priorities or done anything about illegal trespassers, which seems to be a problem in this case?

On the other hand he has us involved in this "war on terror" thing that interestingly enough seems to create more terrorists than it prevents? So it would seem logical that since he is also a big proponent for the "just say no" abstinent programs (the war on sex), once again logically speaking it makes perfect since that we are now being over run with little linoleum lizards & rug rats at an equally higher rate!

On the other, other hand Bubba has had a lot of free time on his hands since Hillary has been on the rode for the presidency?
Coincidence?

Rebellion · #6 (**permalink**) 01-16-2008, 10:34 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by The12thMan

Don't expect the psychosis to end when the baby comes, Chesby. Fair warning.

I was wondering myself if that was going to occur. It's been a week! Come on now and get back to normal! On the bright side...only 5 weeks left

Daybreaker · #7 (**permalink**) 01-16-2008, 10:36 AM

I've been noticing that for a number of years now there seem to have been a lot of movies about how singlehood is evil and the only option for a mature, responsible human being is to get married to someone you can tolerate and churn out as many little workers as possible.

The12thMan · #8 (**permalink**) 01-16-2008, 10:38 AM

6 weeks? Shirley, you can't be serious! Are doctors still peddling that BS?

Rebellion · #9 (**permalink**) 01-16-2008, 10:41 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Daybreaker

I've been noticing that for a number of years now there seem to have been a lot of movies about how singlehood is evil and the only option for a mature, responsible human being is to get married to someone you can tolerate and churn out as many little workers as possible.

There have been a lot of movies about dysfunctional families are as well. One of them, American Beauty, won Best Picture. Little Children is another recent Oscar movie about dysfunctional families. There are tons.

Daybreaker · #10 (**permalink**) 01-16-2008, 11:45 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rebellion

There have been a lot of movies about dysfunctional families are as well. One of them, American Beauty, won Best Picture. Little Children is another recent Oscar movie about dysfunctional families. There are tons.

*Spoiler Warning*

Just in case, y'know, somebody hadn't seen either of those and wanted to ... good movies, both ...

American Beauty is the one where the moral of the story is that if you stop doing what your wife tells you, you'll run sexually rampant and eventually be killed in a fit of homoerotic angst?

Besides, dysfunctional and not having a zillion children are not the same thing.

Look, I like babies as much as anybody. But there are plenty, I think.

Thread Tools
Show Printable Version Email this Page
Display Modes
Linear Mode Switch to Hybrid Mode Switch to Threaded Mode

Similar Threads
Thread	Thread Starter	Forum	Replies	Last Post
Did Rush ever eat your baby?	RushLimbaughIsJesus	Humor & Satire	2	12-24-2007 11:00 AM
Baby Come Back!	sporlin83	Off-Topic Chat	0	11-03-2007 08:11 AM
miracle baby	nonsqtr	Current Events	1	10-21-2007 11:46 PM
baby boomers??i think not	gadzooks	Political Opinions & Beliefs	13	08-26-2006 07:02 PM
US: You've come a long way, Baby...	PoliticallyIncorrect	Political Opinions & Beliefs	35	11-10-2004 03:57 PM