In 1982, 37 percent of U.S. births were unintended, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

And guess what?

In 2010, 37 percent of U.S. births, the latest year for CDC stats, were ALSO unintended.

Meaning: Public health authorities have kindasortaTOTALLY failed at preventing unintended births.

So what's up?

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Time to further complicate the nature-versus-nurture debate...

A new study published today in Pediatrics suggests that academic achievement and brain development are directly tied to gestational time -- how long a kid is in the womb.

What's unique about this study, which tracked 128,050 New York City births, is that researchers examined standardized test scores of 8-year-olds born within a normal age range -- rather than comparing them to premature children.

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Here's some important info if you don't want a kid: neither the transdermal patch, vaginal ring, nor pill are the best way to go about birth controllin'.

According to a recently released New England Journal of Medicine study, intrauterine devices(IUDs), under-the-skin implants, and Depo-Provera shots work better -- they have a 1 percent failure rate, compared to the other methods' 9 percent rate.

Before ringing up your gyno in a fit of panic -- OK, we're so not the only ones who read about this and flipped a shit -- here are some more deets about these popular contraceptive choices.

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In an article titled "Mike: Do What's Breast for Baby" (no, really), the New York Post reveals the Mayor's plans to boost breastfeeding at city hospitals.

"He's cracked down on smoking, trans fats, salt and sugary drinks. And now, Mayor Bloomberg is promoting a new health initiative: breast feeding," the paper notes. "The Health Department is pushing a sweeping initiative to prod dozens of city hospitals to get more moms in their maternity wards to breast feed."

Hospitals who want to participate in the "Baby Friendly Hospital" program can get federal funding for "technical assistance." The move would involve 24 of New York's 36 medical centers, and would require that they set up a plan to bolster breastfeeding with new moms.

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Time for Plan B?

Nearly 1 million packs of birth control pills are getting recalled by Pfizer in the U.S., because a packaging screwup boosts your chances of pregnancy (via Time). Oy.

The pharmaceutical giant says that women with these sketchy scripts -- such as Lo/Ovral-28 tabs and Norgestrel and Estradiol pills, sold as Akrimax Rx -- should probably start using backup contraception if they don't want a kid. The expiration dates are from Jul. 31, 2013 to March 31, 2014.

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Remember, back in the day, when you used to go outside and scamper around the streets of New York with all the other rosy-cheeked neighborhood kids, playing stickball and tag and hopscotch as the summer sun sank gently into the horizon?

No? Well, not to worry, Runnin' Scared doesn't either -- and we can't really imagine New York being the kind of place where youngins would want to play outside, considering that NYC traffic puts speed over pedestrian safety. (It's even worse if you're a child from a lower-income household: Studies show that vehicle crashes disproportionately affect youth from poor areas.)

But a coalition of New Yorkers wants to change this.

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A baby boy was born on a PATH train en route to Manhattan yesterday, allowing for all sorts of hilarious "express train" jokes from the dailies. Rabita Sarkar and her husband, Aditya Saurabh, New Jersey residents, hadn't expected the baby for another two weeks, but, as they say, the baby waits for no train. The couple had been on the way to the doctor to check on Sarkar's "false" labor pains, which, as it turned out, were quite real -- and they hadn't wanted to take a car lest their baby be born in it. So they took the train instead.

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Once upon a time, hip, taste-making Manhattanites in the know would trek to Brooklyn to propagate the species with relatively more space and sometimes even backyards in which to park their Maclarens. But a surprising trend has been uncovered by DNAinfo, which reports that birth rates in Lower Manhattan have surged in the last 10 years. Community Board 1, which makes up the area below Canal Street, reports 1,086 babies born there in 2010. This is up 12 percent from 2009 and doubles the number born in 2001.

This also represents a recovery trend in the neighborhood from 9/11. But the point is, it's a trend.

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Is this the original Jayden?

It's that time of year again! Let's look at what we all named our babies in New York City in the last year, and figure out which name is the "most popular," which really means your kid is just going to get called by a first and last name, or some other nickname, all his or her life, so as to differentiate him or her from the swarming masses who share said name. Take it from a Jennifer.

The winning names for 2010 are...

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Please welcome Jordan Zane Weiner, the new baby son of recently-mustachioed Anthony Weiner and his wife Huma Abedin. The Post reports that the "wee democrat" was born yesterday 10 days ahead of his due date and weighed in at just over seven pounds. This is happy news for a family that's had some rough times in the last year due to Weiner's inability to not tweet lewd photos of himself to random women on the Internet.

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