Most educated U.S. women have most kids

WASHINGTON, May 3 (UPI) — The fertility rate for mothers in 2009 was 2 children per woman, down 4 percent from 2008, which may be linked to the economy, the U.S. Census Bureau says.

However, the women who had the highest fertility rate are those with a graduate or professional degree and by states — there were 2.6 births per woman in Utah and 1.7 births per woman in Vermont.

In 2008, there were an estimated 85.4 million U.S. mothers and the vast majority lived with their own children, the Census Bureau says.

Ninety-four percent of the 37.8 million mothers living with children younger than age 18 in 2004 lived with their biological children only, 3 percent lived with stepchildren, 2 percent with an adopted child and less than 1 percent with a foster child.

Eighty-two percent of women ages 40-44 had given birth as of 2008, compared to 90 percent of women in this age group had given birth by 1976, the report says.

Hospitals were the most popular place to deliver a baby — of the some 4 million U.S. births, only 42,746 did not give birth in a hospital in 2008 with 28,357 mothers having her baby at home and 12,014 in a freestanding birthing center.