Is the U.S. having a baby bust?
UC experts talk about falling rates of child birth in United States
Two experts at the University of Cincinnati told WVXU's Cincinnati Edition that more people are putting of having children in the United States for a variety of reasons.
The show turned to UC's experts to put the declining birth rate in the United States into context.
Emily Hurley, M.D.
UC College of Arts and Sciences Professor Jeffrey Timberlake and UC College of Medicine Assistant Professor Emily Hurley told Cincinnati Edition host Lucy May that the birth rate is affected by many personal factors.
Hurley is trained in obstetrics and gynecology and practices at UC Health. She finished a three-year fellowship in reproductive endocrinology and infertility at UC Health.
“Whether they're waiting to find the right partner or furthering their education and reaching their financial goals, or job satisfaction or being financially stable,“ she said. “There are lots of reasons they're postponing child-bearing.“
Hurley said women have more options to have children later in life, thanks to advances in fertility medicine. But fertility begins to drop off in the early 30s and declines more dramatically after age 37, she said.
Timberlake is a professor and director of graduate studies in the Department of Sociology.
“That narrative of people feeling financially precarious, people feeling their housing costs are too high, they have too much student debt, they haven't found the right partner — all of those issues play a part,“ Timberlake said.
Birth rates have been trending down in the United States since their Baby Boom peak in 1957 when the rate stood at 25 births per 1,000 people.
Last year's rate was about 12 births per 1,000 people or about 3.6 million babies.
The UC faculty were joined on the show by New York Times reporter Claire Cain Miller, who wrote about recent trends in declining birth rates.
Featured image at top: UC researchers talked to WVXU's Cincinnati Edition about what is driving America's declining birth rates. Photo/iStockPhoto
Related Stories
OncLive and Targeted Oncology: Drug yields long-lasting benefits to treat PEComa tumors
March 22, 2024
OncLive and Targeted Oncology covered research presented by the University of Cincinnati's Thomas Herzog that found patients with perivascular epithelioid sarcoma (PEComa) of gynecologic or peritoneal origin experienced rapid, durable responses when treated with the drug nab-sirolimus.
Recent advances may speed time to endometriosis diagnosis
March 16, 2026
The average time to clinical diagnosis of endometriosis is nine years. Definitive diagnosis of the disease is difficult, and until recently, has relied on laparoscopic surgery. Now, as Medscape recently reported, novel clinical recommendations, advanced diagnostic tools and research into inflammation and immune responses, are bringing promise that women with endometriosis will find relief sooner and without surgery, according to experts, including Katie Burns, PhD, University of Cincinnati College of Medicine associate professor.
Driven by her own pain
March 8, 2026
Endometriosis is a painful and often debilitating disease that affects an estimated 6.5 million women in the U.S. It occurs when tissue similar to the lining of the uterus grows outside of it, causing pain, inflammation and sometimes infertility. Now a University of Cincinnati College of Medicine researcher is developing what is believed to be the first at-home diagnostic test.