How we raise young children is one of today's most highly personalized and sharply politicized issues, in part because each of us can claim some level of "expertise." The debate has intensified as discoveries about our development-in the womb and in the first months and years-have reached the popular media. How can we use our burgeoning knowledge to assure the well-being of all young children, for their own sake as well as for the sake of our nation? Drawing from new findings, this book presents important conclusions about nature-versus-nurture, the impact of being born into a working family, the effect of politics on programs for children, the costs and benefits of intervention, and other issues. The committee issues a series of challenges to decision makers regarding the quality of child care, issues of racial and ethnic diversity, the integration of children's cognitive and emotional development, and more. Authoritative yet accessible, From Neurons to Neighborhoods presents the evidence about "brain wiring" and how kids learn to speak, think, and regulate their behavior. It examines the effect of the climate-family, child care, community-within which the child grows.

/pdf/from-neurons-to-neighborhoods-the-science-of-early-childhood-3bfl5g72ow.pdf

From Neurons to Neighborhoods: The Science of Early Childhood Development

Althoughmuchhasbeenlearnedin 30 years, substantial challenges re-mainindiagnosingandpreventingthisdisorder.Ourgoalistosummarizewhathasrecentlybeenreportedwithrespectto fetal alcohol terminology, identifica-tion, effects, prevalence, and preven-tionofexposure.Wewillemphasizehowfetal alcohol exposure is routinely un-deridentified and what is known aboutwhoisatrisk.Withthisknowledge,phy-sicians should be better able to identifyat-risk pregnancies and alcohol-affectedindividualsandaddressfetalal-cohol exposure in the clinical setting.

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/articlepdf/197782/JCT30022.pdf

Fetal alcohol spectrum disorder.

Objectives—This report presents 2004 data on U.S. births according to a wide variety of characteristics. Data are presented for maternal demographic characteristics including age, live-birth order, race, Hispanic origin, marital status, and educational attainment; maternal lifestyle and health characteristics (medical risk factors, weight gain, and tobacco use); medical care utilization by pregnant women (prenatal care, obstetric procedures, characteristics of labor and/or delivery, attendant at birth, and method of delivery); and infant characteristics (period of gestation, birthweight, Apgar score, congenital anomalies, and multiple births). Also presented are birth and fertility rates by age, live-birth order, race, Hispanic origin, and marital status. Selected data by mother's state of residence are shown, as well as data on month and day of birth, sex ratio, and age of father. Trends in fertility patterns and maternal and infant characteristics are described and interpreted. Methods—Descriptive tabulations of data reported on the birth certificates of the 4.1 million births that occurred in 2004 are presented.

/pdf/births-final-data-for-2004-2h3is32myf.pdf

Births: final data for 2004.

Objectives—This report presents 2003 data on U.S. births according to a wide variety of characteristics. Data are presented for maternal demographic characteristics including age, live-birth order, race, Hispanic origin, marital status, and educational attainment; maternal characteristics (medical risk factors, weight gain, and tobacco and alcohol use); medical care utilization by pregnant women (prenatal care, obstetric procedures, complications of labor and/or delivery, attendant at birth, and method of delivery); and infant characteristics (period of gestation, birthweight, Apgar score, abnormal conditions, congenital anomalies, and multiple births). Also presented are birth and fertility rates by age, live-birth order, race, Hispanic origin, and marital status. Selected data by mother’s State of residence are shown, as well as data on month and day of birth, sex ratio, and age of father. Trends in fertility patterns and maternal and infant characteristics are described and interpreted. Methods—Descriptive tabulations of data reported on the birth certificates of the 4.09 million births that occurred in 2003 are pre­ sented. Denominators for population-based rates are derived from the U.S. 2000 census. Results—In 2003 there were 4,089,950 live births reported in the United States, 2 percent more than the number in 2002. The crude birth rate (CBR) and general fertility rate (GFR) rose slightly. Childbearing among teenagers declined for the 12th straight year to another historic Figure 1. Birth rates by age of mother: United States, low. Birth rates for women aged 20–24 years also declined, whereas 1990–2003 rates for women aged 25–44 years increased 2–6 percent, reaching highs not reported since the mid- to late 1960s. All measures of unmarried childbearing increased considerably in 2003, but smoking during pregnancy continued to decline. Timely initiation of prenatal care Highlights improved slightly. The cesarean delivery rate jumped another 5 percent to another all-time high, and the rate of vaginal birth after previous + In 2003, 4,089,950 births were registered in the United States, cesarean dropped 16 percent, an all-time low. Key measures of birth 2 percent more than in 2002. Births increased among nonoutcome—the percentages of preterm and low birthweight (LBW) Hispanic white, Hispanic, American Indian, and Asian or Pacific births—rose. The twinning rate increased, but the rate of triplet and Islander (API) women but decreased among non-Hispanic black higher order multiple births was essentially stable. women.

/pdf/births-final-data-for-2003-4bkb5veo1e.pdf

Births: final data for 2003.

Objectives—This report presents 2000 data on U.S. births according to a wide variety of characteristics. Data are presented for maternal demographic characteristics including age, live-birth order, race, Hispanic origin, marital status, and educational attainment; maternal characteristics (medical risk factors, weight gain, tobacco and alcohol use); medical care utilization by pregnant women (prenatal care, obstetric procedures, complications of labor and/or delivery, attendant at birth, and method of delivery); and infant characteristics (period of gestation, birthweight, Apgar score, abnormal conditions, congenital anomalies, and multiple births). Also presented are birth and fertility rates by age, live-birth order, race, Hispanic origin, and marital status. Selected data by mother’s State of residence are shown, as well as data on month and day of birth, sex ratio, and age of father. Trends in fertility patterns and maternal and infant characteristics are described and interpreted. Methods—Descriptive tabulations of data reported on the birth certificates of the 4.059 million births that occurred in 2000 are presented. Results—The number of births rose 3 percent in 2000; birth and fertility rates rose 1 to 2 percent. The total fertility rate was above ‘‘replacement’’ for the first time in almost 30 years. Teenage birth rates continued to fall while birth rates for women aged 20–24 years rose slightly, and rates for women in their late twenties and thirties rose 3 to 5 percent. Births to women in their forties and early fifties were also up for 2000. The number of births to unmarried women, the birth rate, and the percent of births that were to unmarried women rose 1 to 3 percent, but birth rates for unmarried teenagers declined. Smoking by pregnant women was down again. The cesarean delivery rate rose 4 percent to 22.9, the fourth consecutive increase; the primary cesarean rate was up and the rate of vaginal births after a previous cesarean was down. The number and rate of twin births continued to rise, but the triplet/+ birth rate declined for the second year in a row. For the first year in almost a decade the preterm birth rate declined (to 11.6 percent); the low birthweight rate, however, was unchanged at 7.6 percent.

/pdf/births-final-data-for-2000-1nw320p8me.pdf

Bennett Em

Papers

Alcohol consumption by pregnant women in the United States during 1988-1995.