Antenatal care goes two-tier as NCT classes boom and NHS classes are cut back. But who’s suffering most?
Lucy Rock: Concerns that mothers on low incomes may lose out are matched by questions about the NCT's firm belief in natural childbirth
Learning to love my baby
After a life-threatening pregnancy and a premature birth I was scared to hold my newborn daughter – or to get too attached
Job prospects linked to low birth weight and childhood illness, study says
Research finds those at top of career healthier as infants while lower birth weight could mean smaller paycheck
Women’s health: Special delivery
Editorial: The government took a tiny decline in last year's birth statistics as an excuse for putting off recruiting more midwives
Frederick Leboyer: ‘Babies are overlooked in labour’
In the 1970s this French obstetrician enraged the medical profession by suggesting a baby had 'rights' during labour. Despite initial resistance, his ideas for less medicalised birth changed the face of the labour ward
Breastfeeding by UK mothers rises from 76% to 81%
Figures show healthier trend, but official infant feeding survey finds great variations across regions and socio-economic groups
World Blood Donor Day: Giving blood, saving lives
To mark World Blood Donor Day, Rachel Dixon donates for the first time. Meanwhile, we hear the stories of five recipients
Delivering safe childbirth in Afghanistan
More women die in childbirth in Afghanistan than anywhere else in the world. Global attention since 9/11 has led to more desperately needed midwives – will that change as troops pull out?
Home birth: ‘What the hell was I thinking?’
There's the blood, the pain, the second thoughts. Are home births an unnecessary trial – or the most rewarding way to have a baby? Amelia Hill joins one woman in labour to find out
This satnav of the labour ward is driving us the wrong way
Annalisa Barbieri: Birth monitors cost the NHS millions, and were never meant to replace a labouring woman's default help: the midwife