This Kids Count special report examines how children born in each state fared on selected measures of a "right start." This statistical portrait is based on trends in eight indicators of well-being: (1) percent of total births to teens; (2) percent of repeat teen births; (3) percent of total births to unmarried women; (4) percent of total births to mothers with less than 12 years of education; (5) percent of total births to mothers receiving late or no prenatal care; (6) percent of total births to mothers who smoked during pregnancy; (7) percent of low birth-weight births; and (8) percent of preterm births. Following an introduction detailing the importance of each indicator, the report is comprised of profiles for each individual state. The data are provided for each year from 1990 to 1998, and data for the United States as a whole are presented to provide a point of comparison. Findings indicate that the most notable signs of progress in the 1990s were a drop in the percentage of mothers receiving late or no prenatal care and a drop in the percentage of mothers reporting smoking during pregnancy. Modest progress was evident in a decline in repeat teen births and a decline in the share of births to mothers with less than 12 years of education. The United States lost ground in the percentage of births that were low birth weight, the percentage of infants born prematurely, and the percentage of total births to unmarried women. Substantial differences were identified by race and Hispanic origin for each indicator except smoking during pregnancy. The report's three appendices contain state rankings by indicator for 1998; definitions, data sources, and reporting issues; and the primary contacts for state Kids Count projects. (KB)