We all know the playground song, "First comes love, then comes marriage, then comes baby in the baby carriage." But more and more, society is separating love, marriage and children. A 2020 study looked at how the institution of marriage impacted birth outcomes as Americans become increasingly accepting of having children outside of marriage.
Researchers found that marriage has a very positive impact on mothers and infants. They summarized their findings by saying, “Marriage is associated with a lower risk of preterm delivery, small for gestational age infants, and neonatal intensive care unit admission. These differences persist even after correcting for potentially confounding socioeconomic factors.”