US Births Increase Last Year, But Still Less Than Pre-COVID Pandemic Numbers

Births bumped up last year, but the number of babies born was still lower than before the COVID-19 pandemic. The slight one percent increase recorded was a bit of a rebound from 2020, the first year of the COVID pandemic, which witnessed the most significant one-year drop in U.S. births in nearly 50 years.

That being said, there were still about 86,000 fewer births in the U.S. last year than in 2019, according to a government report released on Tuesday, May 24. Dr. Denise Jamieson, chair of gynecology and obstetrics at Emory University School of Medicine, told NBC News that U.S. births are still not returning to pre-pandemic levels.

Jamieson added that U.S. births had declined for more than a decade before COVID-19 struck, and she would expect the small and modest decreases to continue.

The increase reflects pregnancies postponed due to the pandemic

Officials think last year's increase reflects births from pregnancies in the United States that had been put off during the uncertain early days of the COVID pandemic. Brady Hamilton of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said that deliveries were way down in January 2021, but the numbers improved as the year went on, with much of the increase seen in older moms.

Hamilton, the lead author of the new report, added that these are postponed births. The report is based on a review of nearly all birth certificates issued in the United States last year.

According to newly released CDC data, the U.S. birth rate went up for the first time since 2014. According to a report by Axios, U.S. births had been declining by an average of 2 percent every year since 2014 and plunged 4 percent in the early phase of the COVID pandemic from 2019 to 2020.

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Increased 2021 U.S. birth rate spanned all age groups over 25

More than 3.6 million babies were born in the United States in 2021, a 1 percent increase from 2020. Last year, the increased birth rate spanned all age groups over 25 while dropping for women aged 15-24 and remaining the same in the 10-14 age bracket.

The percentage of premature births also recorded its highest reported level since representative national data became available, according to the CDC data. The rise in preterm birth rates, defined as less than 37 weeks in gestation, comes amid a spike in pregnancy-related death. It is another sign of health disparities weighing especially hard on communities of color.

Birth rates rose 3 percent for white women and 1 percent for Hispanic women last year. But they fell 4 percent for Native American and Alaska Native women, 3 percent for Black women, and 1 percent for Asian women.

The overall cesarean delivery rate also increased from 31.8 percent in 2020 to 32.1 percent in 2021. There could be multiple reasons for the trend lines that emerged last year, including access to care, the underlying health of the mother, the use of fertility treatments, and socioeconomic factors, according to ABC News.

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