‘I’d always thought I would fight for my child no matter what. But I didn’t’

Forced to decide between a severely disabled baby unlikely to live long, or a late abortion, Joy Freeman chose the latter. She talks to people who faced a similar choice and finds that men and women deal with it very differently

Eating your placenta – is it healthy or just weird?

Celebrities like January Jones and the Kardashians are doing it. But is the practice of placentophagy simply a fad, or are there actual health benefits to consuming one’s own placenta?

New baby, crying, no sleep … retreat to France!

A postnatal wellbeing week – with baby – proved a great way for Stuart Heritage and his wife to recuperate from the chaos of becoming new parents

Night terrors: ‘His eyes were open but he wasn’t awake’

My son woke up at 11.45pm and screamed until his throat was raw at 3am. Just when you think you’ve got all the answers to parenting …

If women are told to fear alcohol, they must also be told they have choice

We need less fear-mongering and more support for women who need reproductive healthcare – including abortion care

Zika outbreak raises fears of rise in deaths from unsafe abortions

Campaigners urge governments in Latin America to rethink bans on abortion and make contraception widely available

Cancer patient mother says she would have kept her baby ‘in my tummy’

Heidi Loughlin says she would not have chosen to deliver baby 12 weeks early to undergo chemotherapy had she known daughter would not survive

‘They take over your life and then, one day, they walk off with it’: life before and after children

A baby changes everything. So how does it feel when they’re all grown and gone? Photographer Dona Schwartz meets expectant parents and empty-nesters

Is it safe to drink during pregnancy?

The norms around drinking while pregnant seem to change every couple of decades. Is it ok to have an occasional drink, or is it better to extra cautious?

‘I’m insisting that things be done my way’: readers share their birth stories

Whether choosing a home birth or a hospital birth, we asked readers for their experiences and about the quality of care