Prego in the US

I get weekly email updates from babycenter.com about how far along I am and about being pregnant in general. (FYI I'm carrying an avocado this week.) But I couldn't help post some of the latest US prego stats.


*The most popular day for babies to make their entrance? It's now Wednesday. (This is the first year since at least 1990 that Tuesday wasn't the biggest birth day.) There were 15.4 percent more births on Wednesday than on the average day.
Angie and Audrie... looks like you should be praying for Wednesday to get/not get here!

*Twins level off: The number of twins born in the United States was roughly the same in 2006 as in 2005, with 32.1 pairs of twins born for every 1,000 births. While leveling now, the rate skyrocketed 70 percent between 1980 and 2004.
I was convinced that I was going to have twins. And while my family thought this would be awesome, it still makes me nervous to even picture raising twins. It still could happen... next time.

*The rate of triplets and higher multiple births declined in 2006 for the eighth consecutive year to 153 triplets per 100,000 births. The rates shot up by more than 400 percent between 1980 and 1998 but then started to drop, in part because of improvements in fertility treatments. See, everyone thinks that this is on the rise because of Octo mom. It is just more interesting to the public right now, so it is more publicized. All the multiple birth families on tv had their kids before 2006, so I really don't think that the trend will shift when we get the info for 2007-2009.

*Utah continues to beat every other state, with about 21 babies born per 1,000 people. Vermont has the lowest birth rate, with slightly more than 10 babies born per 1,000 people. Duh. Go Utah!

*Boys outnumber girls: With about 1,049 male babies for every 1,000 female babies in 2006, boys are keeping the edge in a ratio that's stayed about the same over the past 60 years.
Looks like I have a slightly better chance of getting a boy than a girl. We'll see...

"Most of the fascinating facts are from the CDC. CDC data is always a few years behind because compiling it and analyzing it is a big job. That's why the latest info –released in January 2009 – is from 2006. We also pulled a few interesting stats from the U.S. Census Bureau reports, 'Maternity Leave and Employment Patterns: 1961-2003' and 'America's Families and Living Arrangements: 2008.'"