Hawaii second-best
state for birthThe high number of pediatricians
help it reach No. 2 in a
survey by Child magazine
Hawaii is the second-best state in the nation to have a baby, after California, according to a four-month study by Child magazine.
Results of the state-by-state survey appear in the magazine's October issue.
"It's great that we're No. 2, but we shouldn't sit back and be complacent," said Nancy Partika, executive director of Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies. "There are absolutely a lot of things to do in this state to make sure we have healthy children, families, moms and dads."
Other states in the top 10: Maine, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Minnesota, Iowa, Connecticut, Vermont and New York.
To identify the best states for having a baby, she said the magazine examined 20 categories important for new parents and their babies.
They included the number of children's hospitals available, whether a state tax credit is offered for child-care expenses, number of car seat inspection stations, breast-feeding laws and regulations, special training for firefighters and emergency medical technicians in sudden infant death syndrome, and which states require all of the newborn screening tests recommended by the March of Dimes.
California ranked first because it has 14 children's hospitals, allows up to $1,050 per year as a state tax credit for child-care expenses, offers the nation's most comprehensive paid parental and medical leave program and recently passed the Family Leave Act.
The act, going into effect next year, provides partial wages for six to eight weeks for women who have recently given birth and allows fathers and adoptive or foster parents to take six weeks of paid leave.
Hawaii is one of four states that have temporary disability insurance, but it does not apply to fathers and adoptive or foster parents.
Helping to move Hawaii into second place:
>> It is one of 10 states that require licensed child-care providers to have background and child-abuse registry checks, as well as state and FBI criminal background checks.But Partika said Child magazine used very broad indicators to evaluate states. "We could be doing much better.">> It has breast-feeding legislation that makes it illegal to penalize an employee for nursing or expressing milk at work.
>> It offers a wide selection of pediatricians, with one for every 936 children under age 18, the eighth-highest ratio in the country.
>> It has some of the most pristine air in the country because of frequent tradewinds and a lack of pollutants.
Other factors may be as important or more important, she said, such as the impact of illegal drug use on child abuse, neglect and foster children.
If drugs had been an issue in the survey, she noted, "We wouldn't have looked too good."
Hawaii also has many children without medical insurance, she pointed out. "Just because we have so many pediatricians, it doesn't mean children are accessing them."
And even though child-care workers are required to go through a background check, she said more qualified child-care workers and more options for parents are needed.
"This is a state where parents have to work two or three jobs. The issue of child care is particularly difficult for parents now and expensive," Partika said. "It can be several hundred dollars a month for an infant."
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Isles’ child population
numbers increasing rapidly
While Hawaii's elderly population continued to grow at a rate among the fastest in the country, new statistics suggest the islands may be getting younger, too.
The number of youngsters in Hawaii under the age of 5 grew to 83,507 in 2002, up from 77,427 in 2000, according to figures released today by the U.S. Census Bureau. The growth rate of 7.9 percent was higher than any other state and trailed only the District of Columbia, which experienced 8.6 percent growth in the under-5 population.
In Hawaii the highest increase was in Maui County, where the total of 9,283 youngsters was up 8.7 percent from two years ago. Oahu was next with 8.5 percent growth, followed by Hawaii County (5 percent) and Kauai County (2.9 percent).
One possible reason for the increase is the high number of military families in the state, said Dan Boylan, a history professor with the University of Hawaii system.
"You have a large military presence in Hawaii, and those are almost all parents of child-bearing age and they are all bearing kids," he said.
Meanwhile, the number of residents over age 65 increased to 166,910 in 2002, up from 161,358 in 2000. The growth rate of 3.4 percent was tied with Texas for seventh highest in the country, behind Alaska (8.6 percent), Nevada (8.5 percent), Arizona (4.4 percent), Utah (4.0 percent), Colorado (3.9 percent) and New Mexico (3.8 percent).
Of Hawaii's oldest residents, those over 85, the populations on Oahu and the Big Island both grew at a rate of 14 percent. Maui's population grew 11.5 percent, and Kauai's, 6.5 percent.
Pat Sasaki, executive director of the state Executive Office on Aging, said the department has not yet seen the latest Census figures, but plans to incorporate them into future studies on Hawaii's population.
About 13 percent of the state's 1,244,898 residents are over the age of 65, the Census figures show.
