Westminster: wealth, opulence and socially isolated new mothers

In an area where wealth and poverty sit side by side, a maternity project is tackling loneliness and mental health problems

Sally Phillips: Do we really want a world without Down’s syndrome?

A new prenatal test could eradicate Down’s syndrome. Actress Sally Phillips, who has a child with the condition, explains why that would make the world a poorer place

Births led by midwives rather than doctors linked to greater risks – NZ study

Study of more than 200,000 births over five years in New Zealand, where midwives are the dominant care-givers, produced ‘unexpected’ results

Snap, crackle and filth – let kids eat dirt

Could it be that we have been making our children sick by being too clean?

Experience: I didn’t know I was pregnant until I went into labour

I had aches and pains and felt tired all the time. Drinking made me sick. But the doctors couldn’t find anything wrong

Can’t put the baby to bed? Hire a sleep consultant

Exhausted parents are increasingly turning to private consultants to help them sleep-train their babies. Is it really worth paying up to £400 a night for?

We should not rely on Nicola Sturgeon to break the silence around miscarriage

We are lucky to have women like her speaking out, but we need to challenge the stigma around miscarriage as a society – after all, one in six known pregnancies ends in one

Babies born by caesarean more likely to be obese as adults, study suggests

The way we are born may have a lasting impact on health, possibly because babies born by C-section miss out on exposure to vital bacteria in the birth canal

MPs urge better job protection for expectant and new mothers

Call for German-style system to reduce ‘shocking’ discrimination, particularly against women in casual work in UK

From dream to nightmare: when your sperm donor has secrets

Having a baby by sperm donation is an intensely personal and emotional process. So what happens when you discover that the donor has a genetic health disorder?