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A28 u.s. news
Diasabra 7 Mei 2022

Motherhood deferred: US median age for giving birth hits 30

(AP) - For Allyson Jacobs, life in her 20s and tional Center for Health Statistics data. in New Jersey, outside New York City. “I didn’t
30s was about focusing on her career in health have the confidence then that I have now.”
care and enjoying the social scene in New Decisions by college-educated women to invest in
York City. It wasn’t until she turned 40 that their education and careers so they could be better Over the last three decades, the largest increases in
she and her husband started trying to have off financially when they had children, as well as the median age at which U.S. women give birth
children. They had a son when she was 42. the desire by working-class women to wait until have been among foreign-born women, going
they were more financially secure, have contribut- from ages 27 to 32, and Black women, going from
Over the past three decades, that has become in- ed to the shift toward older motherhood, said Phil- ages 24 to 28, according to the Census Bureau.
creasingly common in the U.S., as birthrates have ip Cohen, a University of Maryland sociologist.
declined for women in their 20s and jumped for With foreign-born women, Cohen said he wasn’t
women in their late 30s and early 40s, according to In the past, parents often relied on their children quite sure why the median age increased over time,
a new report from the U.S. Census Bureau. The for income — putting them to work in the fields, but it likely was a “complicated story” having to do
trend has pushed the median age of U.S. women for example, when the economy was more farm- with their circumstances or reasons for coming to
giving birth from 27 to 30, the highest on record. based. But over the last century or more in the the U.S.
U.S., parents have become more invested in their
As an older parent celebrating Mother’s Day on children’s futures, providing more support while For Black women, pursuing an education and ca-
Sunday, Jacobs feels she has more resources for her they go to school and enter young adulthood, he reer played roles.
son, 9, than she would have had in her 20s. said.
“Black women have been pursuing higher educa-
“There’s definitely more wisdom, definitely more “Having children later mostly puts women in a tion at higher rates,” said Raegan McDonald-Mos-
patience,” said Jacobs, 52, who is a patients’ services better position,” Cohen said. “They have more re- ley, an obstetrician and gynecologist, who is CEO
administrator at a hospital. “Because we are older, sources, more education. The things we demand of of Power to Decide, which works to reduce teen
we had the money to hire a nanny. We might not people to be good parents are easier to supply when pregnancies and unwanted births. “Black women
have been able to afford that if we were younger.” you are older.” are becoming really engaged in their education and
that is an incentive to delay childbearing.”
While fertility rates dropped from 1990 to 2019 Lani Trezzi, 48, and her husband had their first
overall, the decline was regarded as rather stable child, a son, when she was 38, and a daughter fol- Since unintended pregnancies are highest among
compared to previous eras. But the age at which lowed three years later. Even though she had been teens and women in their 20s, and more of their
women had babies shifted. Fertility rates declined with her husband since she was 23, she felt no ur- pregnancies end in abortion compared to older
by almost 43% for women between ages 20 and 24 gency to have children. That changed in her late women, ending Roe v. Wade would likely shift the
and by more than 22% for women between 25 and 30s, once she’d reached a comfortable spot in her start of childbearing earlier on average, in a reverse
29. At the same time, they increased by more than career as an executive for a retail company. of the trend of the past three decades, “although
67% for women between 35 and 39, and by more the magnitude is unknown,” said Laura Lindberg,
than 132% for women between 40 and 44, accord- “It was just an age when I felt confident all around principal research scientist at the Guttmacher Insti-
ing to the Census Bureau analysis based on Na- in the many areas of my life,” said Trezzi, who lives tute, a research group that supports abortion rights.

Tennessee, South Carolina extend health care for new moms

(AP) — Tennessee and could be poised to overturn has said he would be will- pregnancy-related death rate it or makes it permanent.
South Carolina are join- women’s constitutional right ing to recall lawmakers to is three times that of white
ing five other states in ex- to abortion. That could make consider further restrictions, women. It was technically possible
tending health care cover- the coverage more urgently were Roe to be overturned. to extend coverage prior to
age to women with low- needed than ever if more Asked about the effect of an the bill, but difficult. The
to-modest incomes for a women, especially older States are currently required abortion ban on Tennessee COVID bill cuts the time
full year after childbirth, women or those in poor- to provide 60 days of cover- women at a Thursday news and paperwork needed to
U.S. Health and Human er health, end up carrying age after childbirth, but med- conference, Republican Gov. obtain approval from Wash-
Services Secretary Xavier pregnancies to term. In Ten- ical experts say women can Bill Lee, who opposes abor- ington under Medicaid and
Becerra announced on nessee, a trigger law would die from pregnancy-related tion, pointed to the exten- the Children’s Health In-
Friday. outlaw abortion in the state conditions up to a year after sion. surance Program. Tennes-
if Roe v. Wade were over- giving birth and that most see and South Carolina are
The expansion of Medicaid turned. South Carolina has a pregnancy-related deaths are TennCare is Tennessee’s ver- joining Louisiana, Michigan,
and the Children’s Health law banning most abortions preventable. Maternal mor- sion of Medicaid, the fed- Virginia, New Jersey, and Il-
Insurance Program comes after six weeks, and Repub- tality is particularly serious eral-state program covering linois in extending postpar-
as the U.S. Supreme Court lican Gov. Henry McMaster for Black women, whose about one in five Americans, tum coverage from 60 days to
from many newborns, to 12 months. The Centers for
low-income adults and frail Medicare and Medicaid Ser-
nursing home residents. The vices is working with another
program pays for about four nine states and the District of
out of every 10 births in the Columbia to extend cover-
United States. age.
About 700 U.S. women die American women are far
annually because of pregnan- more likely to die from com-
cy-related problems, a little plications related to preg-
over half after the woman nancy and childbirth than
has given birth, according women in 10 other economi-
to data from the Centers for cally advanced countries, ac-
Disease Control and Preven- cording to a Commonwealth
tion. Nearly 12% of maternal Fund study. Countries that
deaths occur 43 to 365 days fare better include Canada,
after delivery. Germany, Australia and the
United Kingdom. Lack of
The expanded coverage is post-partum care in the U.S.
made possible by a provision was seen as a part of the prob-
in the COVID-19 relief bill lem.
that will expire after five years
unless Congress reapproves