Gen X Gives Life to Baby Boomers - Part Two

Ever one for trend-spotting, I couldn’t help but notice that there seems to have been an unusually high surge in pregnancies in the past few years. Of course it has something with the “...age we are…” (early-thirties) but it’s not just my friends who are pregnant. It’s not because I’m doing “older” things and hanging out with “older” people. These days it seems women everywhere - at Target, the car wash, the dog park, the grocery store - EVERYWHERE are knocked up.


Is this the second Baby Boom?


The U.S. is experiencing what the AP/Lexington Herald-Leader earlier in the year called a "baby boomlet," citing a reported 4.3 million births in 2006, the largest number recorded since 1961, near the end of the baby boom. (Stobbe, AP/Lexington Herald-Leader, Jan. 16, 2008).


“…Going against the trend in many other wealthy industrialised nations, the United States seems to be experiencing a small baby boom, reporting the largest number of children born in 45 years…. An Associated Press review of birth numbers dating to 1909 found the total number of US births was the highest since 1961. An examination of global data also shows that the United States has a higher fertility rate - the number of children a woman is expected to have in her lifetime - than every country in continental Europe…”
According to this message board, others are noticing the trend as well. (BTW, congratulations 2008 babies: the “Year of the Pig” is a great year to be born – you will be “successful and wealthy…”)


What’s more, statistics confirm that teenage pregnancies are on the rise and abortions are on decline.


This recent article also hints to a national trend of increased pregnancies.


So, if you’ve had kids in the past few years – congratulations! They’re part of what may become known as the “Second Baby Boomer Generation.” Or something more clever, like the BB2s. (Cool abbreviation, right? You heard it here first...)


Can we expect, come January 2009, we’ll see reports that 2008 surpassed 2006 in terms of total number of births? (I personally know about 10 people who have had children or are expecting children in the past six months alone!)


So, if I had to guess, I’d say yes…


Update, Nov. 13:
And what about 2009? Word on the street is that Newsweek is planning a story on a potential baby boom as a result of Americans having sex on election night... Maybe this generation should be named "Obama-babies" instead?