‘I felt myself split into before and after’: how giving birth triggered a life-changing illness

Having a baby led to an unexpected disease and then surgery that altered Lauren Bensted’s body for ever. She talks about the pain she felt in being separated from her newborn, and her journey to learn to accept her new life

Becoming a mother was impossibly hard during Covid. Has anything changed since?

Rates are improving in the US as healthcare organizations take steps to confront the continuing crisis. Still, new mothers often feel alone: ‘People don’t know what to do’

Experience: my newborn baby was kidnapped from hospital

I flew down the corridor screaming at everyone: ‘Do you have my baby?’

‘My child was drowning’: life and death on an English maternity ward

Norah Bassett was hours old when she died in 2019, after multiple failings in her care. What can be learned from her heartbreaking loss?

I know I want at least one baby. But the more I learn about motherhood, the more terrifying it seems

Even supposedly ‘positive’ birth stories make my heart sink. Am I just going to have to make a leap of faith, asks Charlie Brinkhurst-Cuff

I lost my baby – and apologised to the midwife for taking up her time. Here’s why

I was making a documentary about the UK’s midwife crisis when I lost my baby. By then I had heard time and again about understaffing, depression, burnout …

‘At 45, I grieved the idea of motherhood. Then, by pure fluke, I was pregnant’

After miscarriages and IVF, I decided I was done. A few days later, I found out I was expecting, and the beautiful dismantling of my old life began

Births among women over 50 rise 15% in England, figures show

Births to older mothers have increased in recent years alongside average ages for childbirth and IVF treatment

‘There was blood. A dash to the hospital. No heartbeat’ – how I survived the stillbirth of my son

My world came crashing down when my baby died. The future my wife and I had been planning for nine months had been snatched away, and for fathers like me there seemed to be no one to turn to

Naps, nuts and gentle parenting: everything you need to know about new babies

A quick guide for parents to the latest research and studies on raising infants and looking after toddlers