The Ultimate "From The Beginning" From The Government

The government has an insatiable desire to collect data on children. That is a given. The starting age they are proposing keeps getting younger and younger. Illinois would like to begin at 24 hours old. Not to be outdone, Cincinnati has come up with a plan to begin tracking your child as soon as conception can be confirmed.

The Mayor's Challenge is a competition to inspire American cities to generate innovative ideas that solve major challenges and improve city life.This fan favorite (as voted by Huffington Post and Bloomberg Philanthropes) provides the answer to the higher than average infant mortality rate in many urban centers.

"From the first steps a pregnant mother takes into a healthcare facility, we want her to be on a path that will lead directly to her seeing the first steps her baby takes. From the moment a woman finds out that she's pregnant, we will enroll her in a secure database that follows her through the pregnancy and measures the interventions she receives."

All this will be done, of course, to ensure that her child doesn't die prematurely. They also will have a record for the school of everything that happened to that child in utero which may explain why he is having trouble learning.

The really great news is that, when fully implemented, Cincinnati will create a blueprint to share with cities across the country so everyone can start tracking babies. As the government begins to do with data what many people fear they will do with data, it's not like moms will stop going in for prenatal care or anything, like those with depression might stop seeking psychological services for fear of losing their ability to purchase a firearm. This is going to be awesome.