America has an infant mortality crisis. Meet the black doulas trying to change that

In the US, black babies die at twice the rate of white babies. In Cleveland, the mortality rate is nearly three times as high. Can birth advocates make a difference in one of America’s most segregated cities?

Why is it so hard to allow mothers the kind of labour they want?

The Shrewsbury maternity scandal is in part explained by a fetish for ‘natural birth’

Pregnant and waiting for your baby? Forget sex and hot baths – here’s my advice

Bananas, nipple stimulation, castor oil: none of these will hasten labour. Instead, soak up your last chance to be alone

Born sleeping: how I grieved for the much-loved daughter I lost before her birth

The loss of a baby at almost six months pregnant brought special challenges, including the trauma of giving birth – and it didn’t help that the subject is so rarely discussed

Caesarean babies have different gut bacteria, microbiome study finds

C-section babies pick up more hospital bacteria than those born vaginally, research shows

Virtual reality headsets to distract women from the pain of labour? Dream on

No coral reefs or dancing penguins can distract from the overwhelming experience of giving birth, says columnist and writer Nell Frizzell

‘They are together, they are equal’: the agonising choice facing father of conjoined twins

Separation surgery would save the life of one of the three-year-old girls but lead to the death of the other. Ibrahima Ndiaye tells how he came to his decision

‘A mother is scared to hold her baby in case he dies in her arms’: my job as a health visitor

When I visit mothers living with postnatal depression and families struggling to buy food, it reminds me how hard parenthood is

Pregnancy is the ultimate endurance test. If a man says it, it must be true

Can we finally recognise what growing and pushing out)a human entails? says Guardian columnist Suzanne Moore