Slow baby population growth clue to slowdown in US

WASHINGTON: Did America's moms and dads see the meltdown coming before the economists?

Just before the earliest stages of the recession, there was a steep decline in the population growth of children less than a year old, newly released census figures show.

Experts have long known that with rising job cuts and home foreclosures, couples often decide the timing is not right to have children. But the mystery here is that the pregnancy falloff reflected in the government data began months before Wall Street's plunge last September.