The twin birth rate rose by more than 2% a year, on average, from 1980 through 2004, leveling off briefly that year to less than 1% annually then rising nearly 2% again from 2008 to 2009.

In 2009, twin rates increased in all 50 states, with the most significant jumps in lower New England, New Jersey and Hawaii. In Connecticut, twins now account for nearly 5% of births.

Nationally, 3.3% of all births were twins in 2009, up from 2% in 1980.

The greatest increase in twin rates was for women 40 and older. They are more likely to use fertility treatments and to have two embryos implanted during in vitro fertilization, whereas younger women are more likely to get just one.

About 7% of all births for women 40 and older were twins, compared to 5% of women in their late 30s and 2% of women age 24 or younger.

Rates doubled for whites, rose by half for blacks and by about a third for Hispanics. Historically, black moms have twins most often, but white moms have almost caught up.

Are you a mom of twins? In what way has that influenced your purchasing decisions? Marketers, are any of you focusing on this growing market?

The reason: They don’t feel that they can support another child in the way that they would like.

I wondered: How has the recent state of the economy impacted the decision of American moms to have, or hold off on having, more children?

Your thoughts?

• More than half said they bought a smartphone “as a direct result of becoming a mom.”
• After becoming a mom, the most important smartphone features became, in order, the camera, the video, then apps. Fifty two percent of moms said they had 10 or more apps on their phone and one-quarter of them were for their kids.
• Moms are 40% more likely than avergae to use their smartphones for social networking.
• 68% of moms use their smartphones to shop and 62% report that they use shopping apps to compare prices and do research.
• The majorty of moms sleep with their smartphones next to their beds and more than half check their phones first thing in the morning.

Moms, are you devoted to your smartphone? What do you use it for and what kinds of apps would you like to see? Marketers, what apps do you offer for moms and how else do you use smartphones to reach them?

Parenting effectively requires a lot of skills — the ability to negotiate and to have patience, among them. As a mother,  that means moderating a battle between two toddlers who want the same toy, serving dessert IF they first eat their broccoli or reading  a favorite story for what seems like the millionth time in a single night. As a manager, it involves resolving squabbles, dealing with personal issues, or explaining, yet again, the way you want something done.

The question of whether moms make better business managers came to mind after I spotted  some online coverage of the recent Super Mom Entrepreneur Conference and Expo in New York City. Since I’m also a mompreneur — I started Child’s Play Communications when I was pregnant with my son –  it got me thinking about whether our experience as mothers made a difference in the business world.

I know that one thing motherhood taught me was lessons about picking your battles. A perfectionist at heart (big time), I learned that in  business things can’t be perfect all the time, much as you would like them to be, and sometimes you just have to count to 10, clean up the mess and move on — even if you feel like giving the employee who created the problem a permanent time out. Motherhood also taught me to multi-task like a maniac, a skill I know I did not possess prior to pregnancy. There are times, in fact,  when I look back at running a business while my child was young, while also being the good wife, managing all the household responsibilities,  cooking dinner every day, taking care of a mom who was sick, running various school committees,  keeping clients happy, supervising staff – and wondering, HOW DID YOU DO THAT?!

So tell me, moms, do you think the experience of  motherhood has made a difference in your abilities at work? And marketers, do you see this among the moms you hire?

First, a summary of key messages:

• Motherhood is the #1 reason for social media usage.  According to the research, pregnancy and birth motivated the vast majority of mothers in social media —  94% — to seek out information and share opinions with others online.
• Just 18% of social moms wield an astonishing 78% of the overall influence.
• Mom bloggers — as compared with all moms in social media  — make up 16% of the audience but are responsible for a huge percentage — 67% — of the influence.
• Not surprisingly, moms use different social sites for different reasons, from socializing to gathering information.

Moms, what motivated you to get involved in social media? What do you use it for? Where do you like to go, and why? Marketers, how do these findings impact your plans for reaching moms through social media?

For more on the BabyCenter “2010 Mom Social Influencer Report”  visit here. or check out tomorrow’s post for more on the subject.

For the past five years, Sherry Turkle, director of the MIT Initiative on Technology and Self,  has been studying how parental use of technology affects children. Her findings: Feelings of hurt, jealousy and competition frequently result. These reactions were particularly common on three occasions: at meals, during pickup after school or extracurricular activities and during sports events.

Other research has shown that the amount of time parents spend talking to their children impacts the children’s vocabulary. The article gave examples of how, in many cases, the average number of words per hour spoken by adults to a child increased drastically when the parents’ smartphones and computers were turned off.

For more, visit here.

Personally, I’m obsessively attached to my Blackberry, so I understand how a mom could get distracted. But the potential impact is disturbing.

I’d love to know your thoughts. Has tech time gotten out of hand in your family? Do you feel your kids are suffering because of it? If so, what if anything have you done to cut back? And will you make any changes as a result of the findings noted in the Times article?

• 62% of moms grade themselves a “B” at balancing the demands of motherhood.
• 56% of moms meet other moms via friends of friends, while 39% rely on social networking sites. 
• 70% say their ability to multi-task has improved since becoming a mom.
• 79% of moms agree finding “me time” is a challenge, but 75% find a way.

I was impressed that most moms considered themselves pretty good at balancing–this is such a major issue, it was good to learn that so many felt they basically had it under control. I couldn’t help but wonder how our own mothers’ generation would have graded themselves.

The percentage of moms making friends through social networking certainly represents a milestone, when one considers that until a few years ago, such an opportunity did not exist.

That the ability to multitask improved with motherhood was no surprise — how else can we possibly get it all done! I remember, when my son was born, astonishing myself with how much I could suddenly do at once — because I had to.

And as for “me time” — personally I’m still looking…

Moms, what do you think about the study results? Marketers, what can you do to help moms balance, multitask and find some time for themselves?

I hope to get back to you soon with some additional findings.

Fifty six percent of these conversationalists are women, with household incomes slightly above average, and they are more likely to have a college degree than the average consumer. In terms of age, the breakdown for conversationalists, accorindg to Forrester, is as follows:

• 18-19: 36%
• 30-43: 37%
• 44-53: 14%
• 54-64: 9%
• 65 and older: 4%

Also, only about 17% of adults online DON’T participate in social media, and 59% of online consumers participate in social networks about once a month.

Readers, are you conversationalists? How much time do you spend on social networks? Why? And would you rather spend more, or less?

Or is it?

According to a Pew Research Center study conducted last spring, 19% percent of Americans – nearly a fifth of the entire population — think women should return to their traditional roles. For those of us who were around before the term “women’s lib” was even coined, that number is something of a surprise.  But even more intriguing – although possibly less surprising – is the response of mothers surveyed: “A substantial majority of all working mothers (62 percent) say they would prefer to work part time. Only 37 percent would prefer to work full time. In contrast, an overwhelming majority (79 percent) of working fathers say they prefer full-time work. Only 1 in 5 would prefer part-time employment,” stated an article in U.S. News & World Report.  The same article pointed out that the great majority (86 percent) of working moms say they sometimes or often feel stressed (been there, felt that). But so do almost as many mothers who stay at home (82 percent).

As a mom who started her own business just before her son was born, I had the best of both worlds – a full time job that I loved, the opportunity to take my son to the office with me and, as he got older, the flexibility to take off time whenever I needed to – although as any working mom knows, time taken “off” during the day usually leads to that number of hours or more catching up in the middle of the night.

Moms, what is your ideal – full-time or part-time employment? And how do you feel about the fact that so few dads would prefer a part-time opportunity? Companies, what options do you offer moms in the workplace?

What about you? The manufacturers and marketers among you, what brilliant ideas did you conceive for 2010 that you’d like to share with (OK, promote to) the mom readers of this blog? If they sound good, I’ll run them in the comments section of this post.

And moms — what about your goals and plans for this new decade? I’m not talking about New Year’s resolutions — we’ve already heard the lose-10-pounds, be-a- better-person mantra. Instead, what are you feeling ambitious about in terms of your life, your blog, your work — and perhaps, what do you need from the companies reading this to make it easier for you to fulfill that goal? And while we’re at it, what would you like to see in a future blogger event?