About 4.27 million people were born in American in 2006, says the National Center for Health Statistics, a branch of the U.S Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.  The number showed an increase for most states up 3 percent from 2005 and the largest number in 40 years. Now for the sobriety: The biggest increases were among teens and unmarried women.
– Birth rates increased for women in nearly all age groups.
– The largest increases were for for teenagers and for women aged 20–24 and 40–44 years.
– Teenage, 15 to 19, childbearing increased by 3 percent ending a 14-year decline.
– The age at first birth for American women was down in 2006, to 25 years old.
– All measures of unmarried childbearing reached record levels in 2006, amounting to 38.5 percent of all births.
– Mississippi had the highest rise in teen births.
– Missouri’s average age of birth mothers was 24.1 years,

This brought with it some headaches:
– Women were less likely to receive timely prenatal care in 2006.
– The cesarean delivery rate climbed to 31.1 percent, an all-time high.
– Preterm and low birth weight rates continued to rise.
– The numbers of pre-term and low birth-weight babies increased.

Expect more statistics about health and society as the U.S. Census Bureau prepares for 2010. Otherwise, read the deatails on the National Vital Statistics Reporter, Volume 57, No. 7.