2003 Louisiana Vital Statistics Report - Louisiana Department of ...

LIVE BIRTHS 2003 LOUISIANA VITAL STATISTICS REPORT
Race of Mother
Of the 64,689 births to Louisiana residents, 37,066 (57.3%) were to white mothers, 26,024 (40.2%) to black mothers, and 1,599
(2.5%) to mothers of other races (Table 2.5).
Race
Less than
15
**** Cells suppressed to protect confidentiality. Source: Louisiana State Center for Health Statistics.
Table 2.6: Crude Birth Rates + , Fertility Rates 1 , and Age-Specific Birth Rates 2 by Maternal Race
Louisiana, 2003
Age-Specific Birth Rates 2 Race
Crude
Rates
by Maternal Age Group
+
Fertility
Rates 1 Less than
3
15
15-19 Under 20 20-24 25-29 30-34 35-39 40-44 45-494
All Races 14.4 65.8 1.1 55.6 28.8 118.8 111.1 75.5 30.7 5.2 0.3
White 12.7 61.3 0.3 40.2 57.1 102.4 115.2 83.4 33.0 5.1 0.3
Black 17.4 73.3 2.2 78.5 73.3 146.8 104.5 57.9 25.1 5.1 0.3
Other 1.6 66.3 0.1 3.0 4.9 80.0 10.9 10.8 4.8 0.8 0.0
+ Rate per 1,000 population.
1 Rate per 1,000 women aged 15-44.
2 Rate per 1,000 women in corresponding age group.
3 Numerator = all live births to mothers under 15 years of age; denominator = female population 10-14 years of age.
4 Numerator = all live births to mothers 45 -54; denominator = female population 45-49 years of age.
Source: Louisiana State Center for Health Statistics.
Teen and Pre-Teen Births
Table 2.5: Number of Live Births by Maternal Age and Race
Louisiana 2003
Maternal Age Group
15-19 Under 20 20-24 25-29 30-34 35-39 40-44 45 & older All ages
All
(Excluding
Unknown)
All Races 183 9452 9635 21240 16716 11281 4851 909 54 64689 64686
White 31 3899 3930 10851 10423 7923 3317 586 34 37066 37064
Black 150 5444 5594 10037 5825 2909 1348 291 19 26024 26023
Other **** 109 111 352 468 449 186 32 **** 1599 1599
A teen birth is defined as a birth to a woman aged 13 to 19 years of age. A pre-teen birth is a birth to a woman younger than
13 years old. Despite an overall decrease in teen and pre-teen birth rates over the last two decades, teenage and pre-teenage
pregnancies continue to present challenges to health initiatives nationwide. Most pre-teen and teen births are unintended, and
the educational attainment of mothers younger than 20 years of age is limited. In addition to the social repercussions, pre-teen
and teen pregnancy and childbearing have important health consequences for the young mother as well as her baby: mothers
under 20 years of age are less likely to receive timely prenatal care and pre-teens and teens are more likely to smoke during
pregnancy than women over 20 years of age. These factors, combined with the fact that pre-teenage and teenage mothers are
less likely to finish high school, contribute to the high proportion of women living in poverty who first gave birth during
adolescence.
There were 9,635 live births to Louisiana residents under the age of 20 years in the year 2003 (see Table 2.5 above). As in the
United States overall, birth rates in Louisiana for the 15-19 years age group have been declining during the 1990s and continued
to fall until 2001. The teenage birth rate for the state dropped to 55.6 per 1,000 in 2003, while the rate for the United States
decreased to 41.6 the same year (Table 2.7).
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Louisiana Office of Public Health, State Center for Health Statistics Page 20