for a week with a missionary family—John, Wendy, and their three young children.

Giving the Finger
When it came time to send in my next blood sample, I was far too squeamish to prick my own finger, so Wendy reluctantly offered to do the honors. She swabbed off my finger, unwrapped a sterile lancet, and stabbed lightly. Yowch! She had applied enough pressure to cause plenty of pain, but not enough to break the skin. She tried again…and again…and again. Four tries, and the best she could do was to lacerate the epidermis. It is hard to say which one of us was having more trouble with the procedure, but success was not at hand. So Wendy called her husband in to help. John was amused at the situation, andATLANTA – U.S. births fell in 2008, probably because of the recession, updated government figures confirm. The one exception to the trend was the birth rate among women in their 40s, who perhaps felt they didn’t have the luxury of waiting for better economic times.

The birth rate for women in their early 40s rose a surprising 4 percent over the previous year, reaching its highest mark since 1967. The rate for women in their late 40s also rose, slightly.

But birth rates fell for teen mothers, as well as women in their 20s and 30s.

“Women are postponing births to those later ages, above 40,” said James Trussell, director of Princeton University’s Office of Population Research.

Experts don’t know for certain why so many are delaying having babies, though some suspect