NEW YORK - U.S. births went up last year, but the number of babies born was still lower than before the coronaviruses epidemic.
The 1 percent increase was a rebound from 2020, the first year of the epidemic, which saw the largest one-year drop in the U.S. births in nearly 50 years.
There were still more than 86,000 births last year than in 2019 according to a government report released Tuesday.
"We are still not returning to pre-pandemic levels," said Denise Jamieson, chair of gynecology and obstetrics at Emory University School of Medicine.
U.S. births had declined for more than a decade before COVID 19 hit, and I would expect that we would see small, modest decreases, she said.
Last year s uptick reflects the births of pregnancies that had been put off during the uncertain early days of the epidemic, according to officials. Brady Hamilton, of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said that deliveries were way down in January 2021, but improved as the year went on. The increase was seen in older moms.
According to Hamilton, lead author of the new report, these are births that were postponed.
The report was based on a review of nearly all birth certificates issued last year.
Nearly 3.7 million births were reported last year, up from the roughly 3.6 million recorded in 2020.
Birth rates dropped again for teens and for women younger than 25, but rose 3 percent for women in their early 30s, 5 percent for women in their late 30s and 3 percent for women in their early 40s.
Birth rates for Hispanic women rose 1 percent and 3 percent for white women. They fell 1 percent for Asian women, 3 percent for Black women and 4 percent Native American and Alaska Native women. Experts said that the pandemic may have an impact on the health and lives of some racial groups.
The U.S. was once among only a few developed countries with a fertility rate that ensured that each generation had enough children to replace itself - about 2.1 kids per woman. It has been sliding and dropped to about 1.6 in 2020, the lowest rate on record. It rose to nearly 1.7 last year.
The percentage of infants born less than 37 weeks increased by 4 percent, to about 10.5 percent. It was the highest level since 2007 it has been.
In 2020, the premature birth rate had declined slightly, and health officials aren't sure why the increase occurred. Older moms are more likely to have preterm births, as are women infected with COVID - 19, said Joyce Martin, co-author of the study.