Just one more push!

Fifty years ago this week, a young mother called Prunella Briance placed an ad in the Times calling for help to set up a 'natural childbirth association'. The National Childbirth Trust was born, and has been campaigning to empower women in the delivery room ever since. Joanna Moorhead interviews six women to see how far we've come.

Autistic couple bound to each other – and their art

Gilles Tréhin spends his days working on a project he loves, in the flat he shares with Catherine, his girlfriend. Nothing unusual there - except that both Gilles and Catherine are autistic. By Charlotte Moore

Our flesh and blood

Would you be a surrogate mother for your daughter's baby, or give a kidney to your dad? The answer might be more complicated than you think. By Emma Cook.

The science of living

First person: Ruth McKernan is a biochemist, just like her father. She understood that with his approaching death, she would lose him for ever. But she also knew that he would live on in every cell of her body.

Babies on ice

Egg freezing started out as a necessity for the infertile, but it is fast becoming a back-up plan for the busy. So is this the perfect solution for those who want to delay motherhood - or the ultimate admission that pregnancy and the workplace don't mix? Viv Groskop hears the views of doctors, happy parents and mothers-in-waiting.