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For first time, most new moms unmarried Photo by Jim Craven Jeannie Reisinger, 15, a single mother, plays with her daughter, Selena, at North Medford High School Tuesday. New statistics show that most new mothers are not married. Local, state numbers reflect national trend By JONEL ALECCIA Jessica Keene and Jeannie Reisinger never intended to be part of a trend. Neither did Melaine Psomas. But the three Jackson County mothers, all unmarried, all raising first babies, all are on the cutting edge of a social shakeup in the relationship between matrimony and parenthood. For the first time, most American women ages 15 to 29 who get pregnant or give birth to their first children are not married, the U.S. Census Bureau said in a report released Tuesday. In Jackson County, about half of first-time mothers in their teens to age 30 are unmarried, according to the Oregon Department of Human Services. The numbers ring true to Keene, 19, and Reisinger, 15, teen moms whose young children attend a North Medford High School day-care center. And they make sense to Psomas, 32, who lives with but is not married to the father of her 2-year-old daughter, Kriya. "I don't personally know how much I believe in marriage right now," said the Ashland woman. "There's a lot of growth that needs to be done between two individuals before you decide to get married." The Census Bureau report showed that more than 50 percent of first conceptions and more than 40 percent of first births occurred outside of marriage by the mid-1990s. That was up dramatically from the 1930s, when nearly 20 percent of first conceptions and nearly 10 percent of first births occurred outside of wedlock. The change was most obvious among white women, where the proportion climbed to 45 percent in the mid-1990s, up from 15 percent six decades earlier. In Oregon, the statistics held true. Statewide, nearly 46 percent of first-time mothers ages 15 to 29 were unmarried in 1998, said Sherryll Johnson Hoar of the state human services department. That proportion was highest in Jefferson County, where nearly 65 percent were unmarried. It was lowest in Crook County, with 31.2 percent. The Census Bureau's report on trends in premarital childbearing between 1930 and 1994 elicited surprise and concern among local social service professionals worried about the growing disconnection between marriage and having children. "It depends on the individual situation, but obviously if you have two strong, committed parents in a marriage, it's better for the kids," said Carin Niebuhr, director of the Jackson County Commission for Children and Families. "There's certainly a devastating effect on kids, especially boys, as they're growing up, if they don't have fathers in their lives," said Mavis Cloutier, a community health educator with Planned Parenthood of Southern Oregon. Sociologists and social service professionals say several factors may account for the increase in unwed motherhood, including a decline in stigma attached to out-of-wedlock births, dread of divorce and acceptance of multiple marriages. "This is what we see in our media and all the rest of it, among our Hollywood stars and all the rest of it, whether they're adopting or whether they're having a child biologically," said Cloutier. "I think there's just in general a lot less emphasis on marriage." Echo Fields, a Southern Oregon University sociology teacher, said the Census Bureau report accurately reflects social and economic changes. "Women are realizing that a male breadwinner is optional and it's not because the women are bad and the men are irresponsible, it's because the U.S. economy is dealing cards to them that leads to decisions like this," Fields said. Although most children of single-parent families do well, many are at increased risk for problems in school and beyond, social service workers note. For teen mothers like Keene and Reisinger, the decision to have children was not necessarily intentional. "Stuff happens," said Keene, whose son, Dylan, is nearly 1. "I never thought I'd get pregnant," said Reisinger, whose daughter, Selena, is nearly 2. For older mothers like Psomas, marriage seemed like an optional part of parenthood. "I don't believe in staying together for the sake of the child," said Psomas, who has been involved with the baby's father for six years. "Relationships are hard; a mother and a child have no choice but to develop a relationship together." Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA