Judging by births at Utah’s major hospital systems, the number of babies born in 2010 dropped for the second year in a row. “It’s the economy,” says Jim Bradshaw, director of planning information for Intermountain Healthcare, the Utah hospital group that delivers about 55 percent of the state’s babies.
From 2009 to 2010, births at hospitals owned by Intermountain Healthcare, MountainStar Hospitals and the University of Utah Health Care and Health Sciences dropped by 2.5 percent, or a little more than 1,000. Collectively, those hospitals accounted for almost 43,000 births. The state average is about 55,000. The state health department has not compiled Utah’s statewide births for 2010. In 2009, births dropped by 3 percent from 2008 — the first drop since 1993. Salt Lake Tribune
