Soft play is a nightmare – so why are adults leaping into the ball pit?

Our galloping infantilisation continues at a new centre where there will presumably be less screaming than usual, greater participant continence and a bar. Is this what modern life has come to, asks Zoe Williams

Crisis in NHS maternity units revealed as 21 rated ‘substandard’

Care Quality Commission finds many services inadequate, needing improvement or shut over safety concerns

Matrescence by Lucy Jones review – smashing motherhood myths

A thrilling examination of what it means to become a mother challenges assumptions in bravura fashion

More than one in 10 women struggle to bond with their baby, survey shows

73% of surveyed women say they received no information on bonding in first weeks after giving birth

What is Primodos and why were 100 UK families seeking compensation?

Concerns about birth defects first raised in 1960s but evidence for causal link to pregnancy test remains contentious

A moment that changed me: I was in my 20s and depressed – then my mother moved into my bed

Her attempt to comfort me seemed ridiculous at the time. But years later it showed me how I could be there for my own daughter

‘I didn’t even know men could get it’: the hidden impact of male postnatal depression

Postnatal depression affects up to 15% of new mothers, but studies suggest almost as many fathers also show symptoms – and little is being done to help them

Babies are dying because of NHS failings, poverty and inequality, charities warn

Maternity services need urgent improvement and investment to meet government target of halving stillbirths and neonatal deaths

Simple measures could save 1 million babies a year, doctors plead

‘Silent health disaster’ across developing world could be checked by spending less than £1bn on making ordinary antenatal procedures available to all, says new analysis

I’m a science factchecker and even I was overwhelmed researching pregnancy and baby advice

No wonder new parents are at sea over the conflicting information on everything from what to eat to the ‘best’ way to give birth