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The number of babies born each year in the United States has been steadily dropping since the Great Recession of 2008. When the Covid-19 pandemic hit and brought another burst of uncertainty, many expected an even steeper dropoff. (McPhillips, 1/31)

A report published early Tuesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center for Health Statistics showed there were 3,664,292 babies born in 2021, which is a 1% increase from 2020. (Kekatos, 1/31)

The average age for pregnant people at first birth was 27.3 years old, an increase from 27.1 in 2020 and a new record high, notes the CDC. The average age at first birth increased across nearly all race groups to 25.5 years old for Hispanic and non-Hispanic Black women, 28.1 for non-Hispanic White women and 31.2 for non-Hispanic Asian women.(Hou, 1/31)

The number of women who died during pregnancy or shortly after giving birth jumped in the first year of the pandemic, a study in JAMA Network Open shows. While pregnancy-associated causes were still the leading cause of death, the jump in mortality between 2019 and 2020 was largely not related to the pregnancies themselves. (Reed, 1/30)

Pregnant women and new mothers died in sharply increasing numbers during the pandemic, and not just because of a rise in medical complications that may accompany pregnancy and childbirth. An even greater toll was exacted by other causes, like drug overdoses, homicides and car accidents, according to a study published on Friday. “It is really heartbreaking to see,” said Jeffrey T. Howard, an associate professor of public health at the University of Texas at San Antonio and lead author of the paper, which was published in JAMA Network Open. (Rabin, 1/27)

A Massachusetts woman accused of killing her three children has put a spotlight on a rare condition that mental health advocates say is shrouded in shame, often preventing mothers from seeking treatment. Postpartum psychosis is an illness in which hallucinations and delusions alter a person’s sense of reality after giving birth, sometimes driving them to harm themselves or their children. (Chuck and McShane, 1/30)

In recent years, legal and health advocates have sought to bring more awareness to the nature of postpartum depression, though that work has not always translated into policy change in the legal system. (Murphy, Ellement and Cutler, 1/31)