Latino babies thrive
December 18, 2001
Daily News
By Dana Bartholomew, Staff Writer
DESPITE POOR PRENATAL CARE, Latino mothers bear babies as healthy as any group in California -- and in far greater numbers, according to a UCLA study to be released
today.
The average baby born in California is Latino, and Latinos make up nearly half the
newborns in the state, the report concluded. Of those, half are born in Los Angeles
County, where Latinos account for nearly two-thirds of all births.
In spite of low income, low education rates and limited access to health care, Latino
babies have a healthy profile," said study author David E. Hayes-Bautista, director of
the Center for the Study of Latino Health and Culture at the University of California,
Los Angeles.
"We can see the future of California by looking into delivery rooms today. By the time
today's kids become adults, the state will be just slightly under half Latino and we
won't need any immigration to achieve it."
While demographers and census takers have long tracked an upsurge in Latino
births, the UCLA study of Golden State babies born in 1998 further supports the
trend.
With Latino birth rates climbing in most counties in California, researchers predict
Latinos will make up the majority of young adults by 2016.
As Latino populations continue to surge, California as a whole will revert to its roots.
In short, researchers predict, California will become Los Angeles -- now 44.6
percent Latino; or the San Fernando Valley, where Latinos outnumber non-Hispanic
whites by 42.1 percent to 41.6 percent.
"In 1848, Mexico lost the war," said David A. Lopez, a sociologist at California State
University, Northridge, who studies Latino issues. "But in 2050, Mexico will have
reclaimed what was rightfully theirs."
Among the findings of the first county-by-county comparison of Latino births:
Of the roughly 521,000 births in California in 1998, 248,000 -- or 47.5 percent -- were
Latino. Of the rest, 33.9 percent were non-Hispanic white; 10.7 percent Asians and
Pacific Islanders; 6.8 percent African-Americans and 0.5 percent American Indians.
In Los Angeles County, 62.4 percent were Latino, accounting for half of all Latino
births in the state.
While Latino mothers got less prenatal care than most groups, their babies' infant
mortality rate (6 percent) and low birth weight (5.6 percent) -- key indicators of infant
health -- were, respectively, a fraction higher or lower than non-Hispanic whites.
More than 64 percent of Latino mothers were immigrants, whose healthy offspring,
researchers say, is attributable to a Latino epidemiological paradox -- or desire to
emulate the Lady of Guadalupe.
"The lower the education rate for Latinos, the less likely they are to smoke, use
drugs and drink," said Hayes-Bautista, who will soon release a mortality study on
Latinos. "And they're more likely to be married when they give birth."
The UCLA study also found that Latino mothers were more likely to use Medi-Cal to
fund deliveries (58.4 percent); less likely to use an HMO (24.9 percent); and less
likely to use private health insurance (12 percent).
The percentage of teen-age Latino mothers (15.2 percent) was three times that of
non-Hispanic whites (6.9 percent); and Asians (4.8 percent), but less than
African-Americans (16.9 percent) and Indians (18.6 percent).
"It's certainly a very important trend," David M. Heer, senior scholar of the Center for
Immigration at the University of California, San Diego, said of the UCLA study. "If the
(Latino) immigration were ever to cease, I think the Hispanic birth rate would
decrease dramatically.
"But I don't see immigration declining."
Latino growth trends signal a greater need for fair political representation, said
Maria Cano, president of the Mexican American Political Association-San Fernando
Valley.
Mara Marks, associate director for the Center for the Study of Los Angeles at Loyola
Marymount University, said that as Latinos increase, so must their inclusion into the
American Dream.
"We need housing for families, we need opportunities for home ownership, we need
to repair crumbling public schools and build new ones, we need to shore up our
flagging public health infrastructure.
"We can embrace the future and make sure the American Dream is in reach of
everybody," she said, or dilute "the quality of life for everybody in California."