Obesity is an increasing risk in childbirth, report warns
Obesity is a growing risk factor in the deaths of women during pregnancy or childbirth, according to a report published today
Jehovah’s Witness mother dies after refusing blood transfusion
A young mother and Jehovah's Witness has died after giving birth because doctors were forbidden from giving her a blood transfusion.
Fading away by lamplight – how expert help could have saved mother and child
The vast majority of deaths in childbirth are avoidable, but Guatemala faces the biggest challenges.
536,000 deaths a year: the childbirth toll
· Little progress in labour and pregnancy mortality· Abortions decrease but picture bleak in Africa
Doctor couple ‘let teen son do caesarean’
Indian state investigates claims that boy, 15, performed surgery to get into record books.
Model delivery
A team of dedicated midwives is showing how care for pregnant women and new mothers could better work, reports Caroline Bennett.
Going it alone
Why would anyone choose to give birth without a doctor, midwife or even her partner in attendance? Viv Groskop reports on the growing trend for freebirth.
While women in the developing world are dying in childbirth, why are we fetishising doing it at home?
Catherine Bennett: God is a psychopath as well as a top designer, who chose to punish women for original sin by tearing up an earlier scheme for pain-free birth. Whatever the reason - divine malice, or the evolutionary conflict between big brains and pelvises tilted for walking upright - the consequences for at least 529,000 women a year are fatal.