pWATERTOWN — Across New York State and nationwide, women are waiting longer than ever to have their first child — a trend that is less pronounced in Jefferson County./ppA a href="http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/databriefs/db232.pdf"study/a released Thursday by the National Center for Health Statistics found the average age of first-time mothers nationwide to be 26.3 in 2014, up from 24.9 in 2000./ppWhile average ages increased in all 50 states, the greatest rates of increase — 1.7 years or more — were found among first-time mothers living in Washington D.C. and three West Coast states. In New York, the average age of first-time mothers increased by about 1.3 years over the 14-year period. /ppHowever, said Brooke R. Pate, director of maternal and infant health at the North Country Prenatal/Perinatal Council, Jefferson County appears to be an outlier./pp“The biggest things right now are the unplanned pregnancy rates and adolescent pregnancy rates,” Ms. Pate said. “We have some of the highest teen pregnancy birth rates in the state.”/ppBetween 2011 and 2013, Jefferson County a href="https://www.health.ny.gov/statistics/chac/birth/b14.htm"recorded/a 114.2 births per 1,000 women ages 18 and 19, the second-highest rate in the state behind the Bronx, which had 137.7 births per 1,000 women in that age group./pp“Some of the reasons we see these cases are women are not aware of the importance of preconception health and some live in rural areas and receive very little medical care,” Ms. Pate said./ppAlthough rates of teen pregnancy have decreased slightly in the past several years, she said the issue is still concerning, particularly for the young mothers and fathers./pp“Some of the worries that they may have afterwards are how to financially care for their child, and what types of support and resources they can receive in the area,” she said. /ppIn Lewis and St. Lawrence counties, teen pregnancy rates were lower, at 78.6 and 37.6 births per 1,000 women ages 18 and 19, respectively./ppTo see the National Center for Health Statistics study in its entirety, visit http://wdt.me/first-time-moms./p
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