It’s good for women to suffer the pain of a natural birth, says medical chief
Professor: mother and child would benefit if 'epidural epidemic' gave way to yoga and hypnosis
‘I felt totally out of control’
Many women who have an emergency caesarean are so shocked that they demand an elective section next time. Joanna Moorhead hears how hospitals are trying to reverse this trend
Painful advice on giving birth
Ros Taylor: The NCT taught my husband to rub my back, but risks making many women feel a failure for not doing 'natural' childbirth
Two mothers, two lost babies
Elizabeth McCracken’s remarkable memoir has highlighted the issues surrounding infant death. Rachel Stockley meets her
‘We will teach you to make love again’
Janine di Giovanni on the French approach to getting back your sex life - and figure - after childbirth
I lost the power of speech after giving birth
Experience: I'd stare at a word, understand it, yet be unable to say it
Rise in US Caesarean procedures may be linked to childbirth complications
Deliveries by Caesarean section in the US have climbed 50% over the last decade
Giving birth left me in a psychiatric unit
Experience: After 22 painful hours of labour, I gave birth to Isabelle on September 7 2006
999 call transcript: The birth
Read a previously unpublished 999 call transcript as an operator talks a woman through giving birth alone
Giving birth made me psychotic
After giving birth Rachel Brand fell victim to post-natal depression. But she was also suffering from a much rarer condition