Increase in teen births surprises county officials

BY TERRY FLORES tflores@kenoshanews.com   


    Births to girls in Kenosha County under age 18 increased by 38 percent in 2007, the highest number since 2000, according to a report.

    The Wisconsin Department of Children and Family Services reported last week that 84 births were recorded among all teens in Kenosha County in 2007, compared with 61 in 2006.

    Driving much of the increase was the tripling of black teen births, from eight in 2006 to 27 in 2007, according to a local analysis conducted by Kenosha Area Family and Aging Services Inc.

    Among white teens, births increased by two, from 53 to 55. The number of births to minors living in the city of Kenosha increased from 47 to 77. Births in western Kenosha County dropped from 14 to seven. Of the 84 teens giving birth in 2007, one was married and one was under the age of 15.

    The marked increase among black teens is the highest since 1998, when girls gave birth to 32 babies, according to the local analysis.

    “I don’t know if there’s a single cause or reason,” said Gary Brown, executive director of Kenosha Area Family and Aging Services Inc.

    Brown is concerned because until 2007, births to black teens had begun to level off, coinciding with the state’s welfare to work (W-2) program.

    “Since W-2 kicked in, things had been dropping,” Brown said.

    Meanwhile, Brown said Racine County has continued along a downward trend. The teen birth rate for Kenosha County was 24 births per 1,000 girls under 18, up from 17.2 in 2006. In Racine County, the rate in 2007 was 24.2 births per 1,000 girls, down from 27.6 the previous year.

    The state rate is 16.7 births per 1,000.

    Brown said teen births have an impact on the child, the mother and the community at large.

    “Down the road, it puts more strain on the community’s resources,” he said. Among black teens, “you see more low birth weights and developmental problems, and it’s hard for them to get ready for school, and you have more kids in classrooms in need of assistance.”

    Brown said given the recent decline in teen births, the 2007 results were surprising. He said he hopes the latest numbers are an anomaly.

    “I was just hoping to see it continue to go down and shocked to be seeing it go the other way,” he said.

    Rochelle Moore, a social worker with the county’s Division of Children and Family Services, said she began to notice more pregnant mothers over the summer during the Juneteenth festivities.

    While her observations were anecdotal, Moore said it was an eye-opener.

    “I’m observing all these young people with two and three children, and they were pregnant and their children were under the age of 5,” she said. “This is why it’s so difficult and why we have the problems in our schools because even if they are in school, they’re still babies themselves.”

    Moore said teen pregnancies don’t have the stigma once associated with them, and some teens consider it something of a badge of honor. She said while parents should be setting the example for their kids, when their parents are teens themselves, the negative cycle is perpetuated.

    “We have so many children and parents who have no value for education, and so it goes on,” she said.

    “Back in my day, it was a shameful thing to be a teen mother. Now, they’re walking around with their belly poking out, and they are proud of that, and they still have their pigtails in their hair. That’s where you know they are still so young and that they’re not mature.”