This report describes trends and differentials in births and birth rates for teenagers since 1970, and examines the demographic characteristics of the mothers and the health of their newborn children. A brief introduction and a review of highlights of the findings from National Vital Statistics System data is followed by discussions in several areas: (1) birth rate; (2) numbers and proportions of births; (3) birth rates by marital status; (4) numbers and ratios of births to unmarried mothers; (5) educational attainment of mothers; (6) low birth weight; (7) prenatal care; and (8) Apgar scores (used to evaluate infants' overall physical condition at birth). The data presented here focus primarily on childbearing by teenagers aged 15-19 years. Detailed in this report are some of the circumstances that accompany a birth to a teenager, including higher rates of nonmarital childbearing, lower educational attainment of the mother, higher levels of low birth weight, less prenatal care, and lower Apgar scores. Five text figures on birth rate statistics are provided and 11 detailed data tables are included. The appendix contains technical notes on sources of data, population denominators, births by marital status of mother, and computation of percent distributions. (NRB)