OK, so perusing numbers from the Census Bureau might not be most people’s idea of a fun Mother’s Day activity, but it is mine. What better way to spend the day than thinking about all the other moms out there in America?
That is surely what Anna Jarvis had in mind when she lobbied for a national Mother’s Day more than 100 years ago. She picked the month of May in honor of her own mother’s birthday, but she always meant for it to be a larger community celebration. That’s why she organized the first public observances in honor of mothers. All our mothers.
That community spirit lives on in Missoula, as evidenced by in the sweet story of “Operation Mom,” in which members of New Hope Christian Fellowship are spending this weekend helping struggling moms get some home improvement projects completed.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, there are 82.8 million mothers in the country. The total fertility rate (average number of births per woman) is 2.1. The most fertile women live in Utah, where the fertility rate is 2.6; the lowest fertility rate, 1.7, can be found in Vermont.
An estimated 37.8 million moms are living with children age 18 or younger – 3 percent live with stepchildren, 2 percent with adopted children and less than 1 percent with foster children.
On the age spectrum, teenagers age 15 to 19 gave birth to 445,045 babies in one year at last count. Women ages 45 to 54 gave birth to 7,349 infants. But the average age of women who give birth for the first time is 25.
As for giving birth, 24,970 babies were born at home and 10,781 were born at free-standing birth centers in 2006, the most recent year statistics are available.
There! Now that you know a little more about the larger mom community, I hope all you other moms out there also feel a little more connected to it on our shared day. Happy Mother’s Day!
- MM
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