Georgia birth rate, like nation’s, is falling

Decline in overall U.S. birth rate between 2007 and 2010: 8 percent

Decline among U.S.-born women during same time period: 6 percent

Decline among foreign-born women during same time period: 14 percent

Decline among Mexican-immigrant women: 23 percent

Source: Pew Research Center

More than just the housing bubble burst during the recession: What was a baby boom is now a bust.

The country’s birth rate dropped 8 percent between 2007 and 2010, a Pew Research Center report has found.

Researchers said births to U.S.-born women have been on a steady decline since 1990, but the rates had held virtually steady because of babies born to immigrant mothers. But during the past five years, birth rates — the annual number of births per 1,000 women — fell among all groups, with the biggest decreases among Mexican-born women.

The trend holds true in Georgia, which saw birth rates drop from 48.3 to 41.9 between 2007 and 2010, state data show. The nation’s birth rate is now 64 births per 1,000 women, according to 2010 data.

“The evidence is pretty good that it’s related to recession,” said D’Vera Cohn, co-author of the Pew report, noting this is the third Pew study looking at dropping birth rates since the recession began.

History reveals an association between economic downturns and lower birth rates, she said. U.S. fertility rates plummeted during the Great Depression and again during the 1970s “oil shock,” notes a July 2012 report from the Population Reference Bureau.

The birth rate has steadily climbed since that era, mostly bolstered by an influx of immigration that brought young mothers, she said.

The recession changed all of that. And for Hispanic women, local experts say, there was another major factor at work lowering the birth rate in Georgia: HB 87, the new immigration law.

“It was a compound effect for the Latino community,” said Maria Azuri, program manager at The Lifting Latina Voices Initiative with the Feminist Women’s Health Center in Atlanta. “They always found day-work, but HB 87 made it very difficult for those jobs that were always plentiful, like restaurant work that (then required) E-Verify checks.”

As a result, Hispanic couples were forced to make difficult decisions about family size, she said.

“I’ve been hearing more (women say) ‘times are tough,’ ” she said.

Dr. Andrew Dott, head of the Norcross-based prenatal clinic CIMA, agrees with Azuri that immigration law changes played into the dropping birth rates among Hispanic women. But he’s noticed another trend during the past several years: a change in cultural attitudes toward family size. The majority of CIMA’s patients are Hispanic, he noted. And Mexican-born patients in particular, he said, are downsizing.

“I have seen smaller Mexican families than what they were 10 years ago, and that reflects the trend going on in Mexico,” said Dott, whose clinic saw a 30 percent drop in the number of births between 2007 and 2011. “We are not seeing as many women who have lots of babies — four, five, six or seven. We’re seeing more of the ones, twos and threes.”

Of course, Hispanic families are not alone in changing attitudes toward family size. Just ask Shaunna Turner of Lawrenceville. While the recession didn’t stop the 29-year-old and her husband from starting their family, economic concerns are having an effect on how large a family they ultimately have.

“The recession has us being really cautious about making major life decisions like growing our family any more,” said Turner, who has two children but says she would like to have a third.

“I’ve been laid off before,” she said. “There’s always that fear in the back of your mind that you could lose your job at the drop of a hat.”

Theresa Chapple-McGruder, director of the state’s Office of Epidemiology, Maternal and Child Health program, noted that the birth rate and the pregnancy rates have both declined since 2007. And considering that anywhere from 50 to 60 percent of pregnancies are unplanned, she said the data is encouraging as it suggests Georgians were more involved in planning to have, or not have, children.

“It could mean people are better utilizing family-planning services and therefore planning their family size and doing what is necessary to reach that goal,” she said. “It’s good to see the numbers aren’t saying women are still getting pregnant at the same rate, but then opting to terminate the pregnancy due to financial constraints.”

Chapple-McGruder noted that birth rates declined among higher earners, but remained relatively stable among Georgians whose income is within 150 percent of federal poverty guidelines.

“That says to me that if you were already low-income, then the drop in the economy did not impact your reproductive life goals,” she said. “We can’t say the economy has impacted births across the board, but it definitely did for Hispanics, no matter the income level, and for higher-income people versus lower-income.”

But will birth rates rebound if the economy makes a robust recovery?

“I can’t predict,” she said.

Cohn, however, points to historical evidence that such birth rate drops are typically short-lived.

“Usually after the economy recovers, women try to make up for the births they postponed during recession,” she said. “If history is a guide, they do bounce back.”