Springfield leads Massachusetts in percentage of unmarried women who gave birth in 2009.
BOSTON – The number of births to teenage mothers rose in Springfield in 2009, making the city No. 4 in the state in teen birth rates.
According to a new report by the state Department of Public Health, Holyoke ranked No. 1 in the state in teen birth rates for the fifth consecutive year in 2009, even though the number of teen births declined in the city. Chicopee was ranked No. 14 in 2009, the most recent year included in the report.
The report, released on Monday, said there were 438 births to teenagers between the ages of 15 and 19 in 2009 in Springfield, or a rate of 72.1 births per 1,000 teens of those ages. That was up 17 percent from 373 births in 2008.
Helen R. Caulton-Harris, director of health and human services for Springfield and a member of the state's Public Health Council, said the increase was disappointing.
Caulton-Harris said she is hopeful the city's teen birth rate would decline in the future based on a new sexual-education and health curriculum introduced in schools last year for grades 7, 8 and 9.
"We have put some strategies in place in the city that we believe will have a positive outcome for teen births in Springfield," Caulton-Harris said.
A total of 68 percent of teen births in Springfield was to Hispanics, the report said, while 20 percent were to blacks and 9 percent to whites.
Springfield also was No. 2 in the state for its rate of infant deaths, the report said. During three years from 2007 to 2009, there were 8.1 deaths to infants per 1,000 births to Springfield residents, the report said. Springfield trailed Fall River and was just ahead of Brockton in deaths of infants less than 1 year old, the report said.
Helen Caulton-Harris, director of the department of health and human services in Springfield.Caulton-Harris said infant mortality is a longtime problem in Springfield, showing that more mothers need adequate pre-natal care.
Springfield was also No. 1 in the state in the percentage of mothers who were not married at the time of birth, the report said. A total of 72.4 percent of women who gave birth in Springfield in 2009 were not married, the report said.
Statewide in 2009, 35 percent of mothers were not married when they delivered a child, the report said. The cities with the lowest percentage of unmarried women giving birth in 2009 were Brookline, 5.2 percent; Newton, 7.5 percent; and Cambridge, 15.3 percent.
In 2009, for the state as a whole, Hispanics continued to have the highest percentage of unmarried mothers at 67.6 percent, followed by black mothers at 58.9 percent, the report said.
Holyoke Mayor Elaine A. Pluta said she was pleased that the number of teen births in Holyoke dropped between 2008 and 2009.
In 2009 in Holyoke, there were 146 births to teenagers between 15 and 19, or a rate of 96.8 births per 1,000 women between those ages. That was down 16 percent from 174 such births in 2008, or a rate of 115.3 births.
Elaine Pluta, mayor of Holyoke"That's very gratifying," the mayor said. "We hope to continue that success."
The mayor, who is chairwoman of the Holyoke School Committee, said the city introduced a new health and sexual-education curriculum for grade 9 students last year.
The mayor said a group – the Holyoke Adolescent Sexual Health and Pregnancy Prevention Task Force – is working on the issue.
Officials said teen pregnancy is a serious social problem partly because it can cause students to drop out of high school.
Patricia M. Quinn, executive director of the Massachusetts Alliance on Teen Pregnancy, said both Holyoke and Springfield are making progress in dealing with the issue of teenage pregnancy. She said the issue will require years of work in both communities. "The problem didn't spring up over night in either community," Quinn said.
According to Quinn, Holyoke's rate of teen births has dropped 2 percent since 1999, while Springfield's rate has declined 14 percent since 1999. The statewide rate fell 27 percent since 1999.
Quinn said Chicopee could be a concern based on a significant increase in births to teenagers. Chicopee had 72 births to teens in 2009, up 22 percent from 59 in 2008.
Statewide in 2009, there were 4,477 births among women between 15 and 19, a decrease of 106 since 2008. The statewide rate in 2009 was 19.5 births per 1,000 women between 15 and 19, a little less than the rate of 20.1 births per 1,000 in 2008, the state report said. The state rate has been dropping since 1990, the report said.
Massachusetts compares very favorably to the national rate. The Massachusetts teen birth rate in 2009 was 50 percent below the 2009 U.S. teen birth rate of 39.1 births per 1,000 female ages 15-19 years, the report said.