Teen pregnancy rates rose in the U.S., according to a government report released last month, and now doctors, teachers, parents and, of course, girls and boys need to take notice. The National Center for Health Statistics’ recent report found that teen pregnancy rates increased from 21 births per 1,000 teenage girls in 2005 to 22 per 1,000 in 2006, the most recent year for which statistics are available.

Though small, it’s the first increase in teen pregnancy rates since they began dropping from a peak in 1991.

And according to WebMD, researchers say they’re not really sure why the rates went up.

"It’s only one year. And it might be, to use a very technical term, a blip in the data," said Edward J. Sondik, PhD, director of the National Center for Health Statistics, a CDC division that compiles national data on children’s health and well-being each year.

Meanwhile pediatrician and Washington Post columnist Dr. Meg Meeker said that Hollywood should take part of the blame for the glamorization of teen pregnancy. Jamie-Lynn Spears and her baby recently graced the cover of US Weekly, "championing it to bored and confused girls as a ready solution to many of life’s ills," Meeker points out.

She also writes, "After all, swollen bellies bring attention — usually in the form of oohs and ahhs — if not a bit of pity. The problem is, young girls don’t care which type of attention follows, they just relish whatever they can get, because most know too well that life without it is far too painful to bear."

Meeker also suggests that U.S. schools should spend more money on sex education, and that doctors need to encourage the use of safe-sex contraceptives.

The final party that needs to take notice: parents.

"It is high time that we adults face the music," Meeker writes. "We can no longer allow two critical mistakes to continue. First, we must stop the denigration of boys everywhere. They matter. Their thoughts, opinions and everything masculine about them matters tremendously. It isn’t just the girls and babies who count. Second, we cannot continue to allow kids to raise themselves while we live life around them, hoping that a few conversations about safer sex will suffice to keep them from having babies. We must give them more of our time and ourselves."

Clich here to read her Washington Post column in its entirety.

Click here for some of the most recent statistics of teen birth rates.