What is the status of marriage in Christianity? In short, it is viewed as a holy sacrament and as a reflection of the relationship of Jesus Christ and the Church, in parallel to the Old Testament’s teaching of the relationship between God and Israel. What’s more, the majority of Christian denominations consider marriage as a permanent and life long commitment between a man and woman. For that reason fornication is denounced in all ways and Christian schools of thought are up in arms against it always.

However, in spite of this, present statistics confirm that the number of unmarried mothers has reached almost an all time high in the United States of America. The government report confirms as well that Cesarean delivery rates continue to attain new highs.

Let’s concentrate on the available statistics. The reports confirm that the total number of births, birth rate and proportion of births to unmarried women increased by 3 percent to 5 percent between 2006 to 2007. On the other hand the estimated 1,714,643 babies born to unmarried women in 2007 accounted for 39.7 percent of all births in the country.

It was in the year 2007 when the total number of births rose to 4,317,119 and it was the highest number of births ever registered in the United States. What was the rate of Cesarean delivery? It increased by 2 percent, to 31.8 percent, in 2007. According to the report of National Center for Health Statistics at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, it was the eleventh consecutive year of increase and another record high for the nation.

Reports also confirm that the rate of preterm births (babies delivered after less than 37 weeks of pregnancy) decreased 1 percent, to 12.7 percent in 2007. The decline occurred predominately among infants born late preterm (between 34 and 36 weeks). Since the early 1980s, the preterm rate in the United States has increased by more than a third.

The State may have a sigh of relief owing to this development since according to the Institute of Medicine, preterm birth is the leading cause of newborn death and costs more than $26 billion annually. But what about the increasing numbers of unwed mothers and children? It’s the time to think of this.