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| Rate of teenagers giving birth rises slightly in Massachusetts | |
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04/01/99 BOSTON - The rate of teenagers giving birth in Massachusetts went up slightly in 1997, although it was still well below that of the nation as a whole, state public health officials said yesterday. The good news is that s everal communities that consistently have the most teen births - including Holyoke and Lawrence - reported their lowest teen birth rates since town-by-town statistics were first logged in 1987. Birth rate is defined as the number of births for every 1,000 women ages 15 to 19. In 1997, there were 5,904 births to Massachusetts females under age 20. That's 55 more than the previous year. But it is the birth rate - not the number of newborns - that is considered significant. Throughout the decade, the teen birth rate declined in Massachusetts before holding relatively steady during the last few years. In 1997, the most recent statistics available, the rate was 33.8 births per 1,000 women ages 15 to 19. Younger teens are not included in the statistics because the number of younger teenage mothers is so small, public health officials said. The rate is up slightly from 1996, when it dropped to a low of 32.6 births per 1,000. But the 1997 number is still a decline from 1989's peak of 35.9 births, said Deborah Klein Walker, director of the Department of Public Health's Bureau of Family and Community Health. Officials said they are not too worried about the slight rate increase, noting it is probably a statistical blip. What would concern officials, however, is if the rate continued upward for several years. Teen moms are less likely to receive adequate prenatal care and have an infant mortality rate nearly twice that of mothers over age 20. Nationally, the rate of teen births is 52.9 per 1,000, giving Massachusetts one of the lowest teen birth rates in the country. In 1996, for example, only five states - New Hampshire, Vermont, Maine, Minnesota, and North Dakota - had overall teen birth rates as low as or lower than that of Massachusetts. But most of those states have different demographics than Massachusetts, Klein Walker said. Historically in the Bay State, communities with large immigrant populations have higher teen birth rates. Holyoke, with a large Hispanic population, has had the highest rate in the state throughout the 1990s. But the rate in Holyoke has dropped significantly, from a high of 140.3 births per 1,000 teens to a low of 94.9 in 1997. Similarly, Chelsea has dropped from 114.8 births in 1990 to 93.9 births in 1997. Lawrence, which ranked second in the state with 122.8 births in 1990, ranked sixth in 1997 with a rate of 81.1, according to Department of Public Health statistics. In Holyoke, youth leaders attribute the decline to better intervention. This story ran on page B04 of the Boston Globe on 04/01/99.
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