Birth Rates of Teens and Unwed Women Increases

For the first time in years, rates of birth to teens and unwed women are on the increase.  Alarmingly, low birth weight is at its highest level in four decades.  Pre-term babies have increased some 20%, the highest since 1990.  The study concludes that black and Hispanic women are typically disadvantaged relative to their white counterparts.

Steep increases since 1990 in the percentage of mothers who gained too little or too much weight (less than 16 pounds or more than 40) during pregnancy – up from 24 percent to 33 percent of all births.