Parents of infant who died in wrong-way crash on Ontario's Hwy. 401 were in same vehicle
Ontario’s Special Investigations Unit has released new details about a wrong-way collision in Whitby on Monday night that claimed the lives of four people.
Early speculation that the COVID-19 pandemic may lead to a baby boom has been turned on its head, with early data showing more of a baby bust -- and worsening rates of some adverse outcomes.
After a steep drop in the first year of the pandemic, U.S. birth rates rose only slightly in 2021, according to provisional data published Tuesday by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center for Health Statistics.
It was the first time in seven years that the U.S. birth rate increased. Births had been dropping by an average of 2% a year since 2014, including a decline of twice that much between 2019 and 2020.
Nearly 3.7 million babies were born in the U.S. in 2021; that's about 46,000 more than were born in 2020, but the 1% increase still put the number short of 2019 levels.
The drop in birth rates in 2020 was one of the largest in decades, and the slight rise in 2021 "doesn't necessarily mean that that declining trend is over," said Beth Jarosz, a demographer and program director with the nonprofit Population Reference Bureau with a focus on child well-being.
Postponed pregnancies or changes in access to contraceptives could have influenced 2021 birth rates, and "2020 was such a weird year," she said.
"I'm always a little bit skeptical of just one year [of data]. But in this case, I really would need to see what happens in 2022 to try to suggest that that's any kind of a rebound or trend."
While birth rates rose for white and Hispanic women in 2021, they dropped for Black, Asian and American Indian women.
Overall, rates of c-sections -- including those for low-risk deliveries -- continued upward trends. Nearly a third (32%) of all deliveries and more than a quarter (26%) of low-risk deliveries were c-sections.
Preterm birth rates also increased in 2021. About 10.5% of infants were born at less than 37 weeks gestation, the highest that rate has been since at least 2007.
Rates of c-section and preterm birth were disproportionately high for Black women, the provisional data shows.
"When a pregnant person is under stress, that can lead to an increase in preterm births. And clearly, there was a lot of stress in 2020 and 2021," Jarosz said.
Some research has also linked COVID-19 infection during pregnancy to a higher risk of preterm birth.
Teen birth rates reached another record low nationwide, with about 14 births for every 1,000 females age 15 to 19.
But birth rates rose for all age groups 25 and up -- especially among those ages 35 to 39. The average age of mothers at time of birth has been on the rise for at least a decade. And although the average age of mothers is not yet available for 2021, preliminary data show that more than half of births were among mothers who were 30 or older, up from 49% in 2020.
Ontario’s Special Investigations Unit has released new details about a wrong-way collision in Whitby on Monday night that claimed the lives of four people.
Three men in Quebec from the same family have fathered more than 600 children.
A British Columbia mayor has been censured by city council – stripping him of his travel and lobbying budgets and removing him from city committees – for allegedly distributing a book that questions the history of Indigenous residential schools in Canada.
A spike in impaired driving-related collisions has caused Ontario’s provincial police to begin enforcing mandatory alcohol screening (MAS) at all traffic stops in the Greater Toronto Area -- a move one civil rights group says is ‘not acceptable.’
William Nylander scored twice and Joseph Woll made 22 saves as the Toronto Maple Leafs downed the Boston Bruins 2-1 on Thursday to force Game 7 in their first-round series.
Jurors in the hush money trial of Donald Trump heard a recording Thursday of him discussing with his then-lawyer and personal fixer a plan to purchase the silence of a Playboy model who has said she had an affair with the former president.
Staff at a small southern Alberta office supply store were shocked to find someone had broken into the business last week, but they were even more confused when they discovered the culprit was a bear.
A federal judge on Thursday sentenced a scuba dive boat captain to four years in custody and three years supervised release for criminal negligence after 34 people died in a fire aboard the vessel.
Fake text message and email campaigns trying to get money and information out of unsuspecting Canadian taxpayers have started circulating, just months after the federal government rebranded the carbon tax rebate the Canada Carbon Rebate.
Three men in Quebec from the same family have fathered more than 600 children.
A group of SaskPower workers recently received special recognition at the legislature – for their efforts in repairing one of Saskatchewan's largest power plants after it was knocked offline for months following a serious flood last summer.
A police officer on Montreal's South Shore anonymously donated a kidney that wound up drastically changing the life of a schoolteacher living on dialysis.
Since 1932, Montreal's Henri Henri has been filled to the brim with every possible kind of hat, from newsboy caps to feathered fedoras.
Police in Oak Bay, B.C., had to close a stretch of road Sunday to help an elephant seal named Emerson get safely back into the water.
Out of more than 9,000 entries from over 2,000 breweries in 50 countries, a handful of B.C. brews landed on the podium at the World Beer Cup this week.
Raneem, 10, lives with a neurological condition and liver disease and needs Cholbam, a medication, for a longer and healthier life.
The lawyer for a residential school survivor leading a proposed class-action defamation lawsuit against the Catholic Church over residential schools says the court action is a last resort.
Mounties in Nanaimo, B.C., say two late-night revellers are lucky their allegedly drunken antics weren't reported to police after security cameras captured the men trying to steal a heavy sign from a downtown business.