The day I got my first period
From confusing advice – ‘Don’t talk to lads now’ – to bumbling attempts to help, our readers share warm, moving, and funny stories about menstruation
Inflatable incubator aims to help save premature babies
Rebecca Smithers: A design graduate won this year’s James Dyson award for his low-cost inflatable incubator which aims to reduce infant mortality
The perils of having an older parent
When Charles Lambert was born, his father was 64. After a childhood overshadowed by ill-health and old age, he cautions against late-life parenthood
Symphysiotomy – Ireland’s brutal alternative to caesareans
Homa Khaleeli: Symphysiotomy has left many Irish mothers with serious long-term health problems. So did religious dogma trump the women’s best interests?
Judge rules mother not guilty of crime for drinking while pregnant
Child born with lifelong damage after excessive drinking by mother is not entitled to criminal injuries compensation, court rules
Eating for two ‘increases risk of obesity in babies’
Overweight mothers can affect child’s weight and health from very early age, warns new report
It’s class, not whether a baby is breastfed, that determines life chances
Eliane Glaser: Paying working-class women to breastfeed doesn’t address the reasons for their choice, or the economic factors that are really driving inequality
We don’t know why a mum abandoned her newborn baby. But we do know that the system fails mothers
Amy Gray: As crimes go, abandoning a newborn in a drain is awful. Cases like this are exceedingly rare, but our society’s neglect of mothers makes them possible
Finnish teenagers with sleeping disorders double in last 20 years
Study reveals increase in insomnia and experts believe energy drinks and smartphones may be to blame
Face blindness – when you can’t recognise a familiar face
In this winning essay for the Wellcome Trust science writing prize, Kate Szell reports on research into prosopagnosia – face blindness