Maternity care is not on a journey of obvious improvement

History suggests that reports exposing NHS failings do not banish the culture that harms babies and mothers

‘I was in a horror film, unsafe. And the person I was in danger from was me’: the truth about severe postpartum anxiety

Days after my baby was born, I was overwhelmed by raw terror. Soon, my son and I were living in a specialist unit. This is what I learned

The big idea: why the maternal instinct is a myth

The ‘parental brain’ is something that develops with experience – and anyone can get one

My in-laws never pay their way and it drives me mad. How can I break this habit?

Ask your husband why he always pays for his family – and ask yourself why you don’t dare discuss this behaviour with them

Toxic air pollution particles found in lungs and brains of unborn babies

Particles breathed by mothers pass to their vulnerable foetuses, with potentially lifelong consequences

‘We are expected to be OK with not having children’: how gay parenthood through surrogacy became a battleground

In New York, a gay couple fighting to make their insurers pay for fertility treatment have found themselves in the middle of a culture war. What happens when the right to parenthood involves someone else’s body?

‘I felt a responsibility to get it right’: the male standups using jokes to cope with miscarriage

Even though it affects one in five pregnancies, the loss of a baby is rarely talked about, especially among men. But standups Jacob Hawley and Will Duggan are using comedy to break that taboo

Scientists find out the best way to soothe a crying baby

Walking around, then sitting down and holding baby for up to eight minutes seems to be the most effective technique

Four radical new fertility treatments just a few years away from clinics

Synthetic embryos and three-person babies among advances revised fertility laws need to consider

The pregnancy prescription: ‘I was told a baby might cure my chronic pain. I was sold a lie’

A difficult pregnancy is a lot like living with chronic pain, something to be quietly endured, because no one likes to talk about it