Tobacco Use Remains High in Middle and High Schools

in 3 Decades The rate of home births in the US reached the highest level in 30 years in 2021, according to a National Vital Statistics report. Birth certificate data showed that home births rose steadily from 1990 to 2019, by an average of about 2% a year. But dramatic increases occurred during the first 2 years of the COVID-19 pandemic. The home birth rate rose 22%, from 1.03% to 1.26%, between 2019 and 2020, and another 12%, to 1.41%, in 2021. About 2% of births among White women occurred at home in 2021, the highest rate of any racial or ethnic group. But Black and Hispanic women have experienced the largest increase in home birth rates in recent years. Home births among Black women increased 36%, from 0.50% in 2019 to 0.68% in 2020, and 21%, to 0.82%, in 2021. Home births among Hispanic women increased by 30%, from 0.37% of all deliveries in this group in 2019 to 0.48% in 2020, and by another 15%, to 0.55%, in 2021. By comparison, the rate of home births among White women increased 21% from 2019 to 2020 and 10% from 2020 to 2021. The greatest increase in home births overall took place in January through March of 2021 compared with the same months in 2020. By comparison, home birth rates were relatively stable in January and February of 2019 and 2020, which may suggest pandemic-related effects on women’s birth location choices. The largest increases in home births between the early months of 2020 and 2021 occurred among Black women, who had a 51% to 62% increase in home births, and Hispanic women, who had a 24% to 69% increase in home births. Home births among White women increased from 24% to 41% across the early months of 2020 to 2021. Fear of being infected with SARS-CoV-2 or receiving poor care in overwhelmed hospitals may have made women reluctant to deliver in a hospital, wrote the authors of a second study. The study, by researchers from the University of Maryland in College Park and Boston University School of Public Health, found a 23% increase in planned home births and a 13% increase in birth center deliveries between 2019 and 2020. About 1 in 50 US births in 2020 occurred in one of these nonhospital settings, the study found.