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A mother whose baby died after being deprived of oxygen when he was born has told an inquest that she is “tortured” by the memory of his birth. Noah Tyler died 10 months after suffering irreversible brain damage at the University Hospital of Wales in Cardiff, a pathologist said. A midwife admitted making “catastrophic mistakes” [...]

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Mothers will receive one-to-one care from a named midwife during labour and birth as part of government plans to combat postnatal depression. Women who have a miscarriage or stillbirth and parents who are forced to cope with the death of a baby will also be offered increased support from the NHS. Under the plans, health [...]

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The global mortality rate for women giving birth has fallen by half over the past two decades, a UN report released today said. While there has been considerable progress, more work remains because a woman dies of pregnancy-related complications every two minutes, the report said. The report from the World Health Organization, United Nations Children’s [...]

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As Andrew Lansley, the health secretary, prepares to outline a package of measures aimed at improving care in pregnancy and the early stages of motherhood, Annie Francis, chief executive of a local midwifery service says women benefit from having a dedicated midwife.   Neighbourhood Midwives, is a NHS-funded social enterprise based in Wandsworth, south London, [...]

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Aishwarya Rai is no stranger to Cannes. The Bollywood actor and former Miss World has attended the film festival 10 times, but her appearance on the red carpet next week is set to be her most talked about. The cause of a controversy raging in India lies not with her latest film – Rai is [...]

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A young couple delivered their baby in a bathroom after a labour lasting just eight minutes. Joshua Courtney, advised by a midwife over the phone, helped Natalie Dunleavy give birth after her waters broke at their home in Tingley, Wakefield. Miss Dunleavy, 22, said: “It was so quick it was unbelievable. Josh was amazing. It [...]

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She says she has lost two stone since being pregnant, but Una Healy insists that she is still all ‘soft’ and ‘squidgy’ following the birth of baby girl Aoife Belle two months ago. That is hard to believe though, looking at the pictures of the super svelte singer making her way through Heathrow today. Una, [...]

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When Daniella Jackson was diagnosed with cancer at five months pregnant her doctors quickly advised her to have an abortion. They said she needed a termination to allow her lung tumour to be removed before it killed her. But the 21-year-old, who is a devout Roman Catholic, refused, saying she felt too close to her [...]

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The survey also found that one in five women were not offered a choice of where to have their baby, despite this being a key pledge in maternity care. The Royal College of Midwives said the findings highlighted the shortage of midwives and called for 5,000 more to be appointed.   The Coalition has been accused [...]

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Model Sasha Pivovarova has given birth to a baby girl just two days after posting the first picture of her pregnant bump. The Russian-born 26-year-old, who has yet to reveal her new baby’s name, announced the birth via Twitter yesterday, telling her fans: ‘It’s a beautiful baby girl… ’ It is a first baby for [...]

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Overweight mothers-to-be could be condemning their unborn children to decades of ill health. Babies whose mothers were carrying extra pounds when pregnant are more likely to be fat and unhealthy  as adults, researchers say. While it is well known that overweight mothers-to-be risk having big babies who grow into overweight children, this study is one [...]

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One in four women do not have  a midwife present during the crucial moments of giving birth, according to a new study. The research, for the Royal College of Midwives, reveals that women across the country are being let down by under-staffed maternity services. On average, a quarter of women said they did not have  [...]

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Her sense of style is coveted by many but now Kourtney Kardashian has influenced the world of parenting. While Jacob has been found to be the most popular name for boys for the 13th year straight, Mason has come in at second place according to a list made by the U.S. Social Security Administration. The [...]

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Women approaching their mid-thirties who aren’t ready to have children are not the only ones worrying about their reproductive futures. Reports from fertility centres around the country are showing the increase of parental contribution as adult women opt to freeze their eggs. For many would-be-grandparents, helping to cover the cost of the expensive oocyte cryopreservation [...]

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Depending on your view of the world, the name Jacob either makes you think of the third patriarch of the Hebrew people, ancestor of the tribes of Israel, or it makes you think of a certain sexy werewolf. But one thing is clear: the name Jacob is on a lot of minds. It is, in [...]

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Japan’s people could become extinct in 1,000 years because of declining birth rates, academics say. The population of Japanese children aged up to 14, currently stands at 16.6million in the country but is shrinking at a rate of one every 100 seconds, researchers in Sendai said. They warned that at the current rate, Japan would [...]

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When seven-year-old Chloe Dennis’ mother went into labour, she didn’t call the midwife… she did the job herself. The youngster was awoken by mother Rachael’s screams as contractions began in the middle of the night. With nobody else around, she leapt into action and grabbed a towel to keep her newborn sister clean and warm. [...]

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IVF procedures widely used in the UK are posing a ‘serious health risk’, healthcare experts have warned. Clinics are using ‘aggressive’ practices that improve success rates but have led to treatments becoming one of the biggest causes of maternal deaths in England and Wales, they said. There is increasing evidence that the most common treatment, [...]

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IVF clinics in the UK are practising aggressive fertility treatments that are putting women and children at unjustified risk, experts say. The commercially driven industry uses unnecessary procedures, high doses of powerful drugs and risky interventions to help desperate couples spending thousands of pounds to conceive. But a milder, safer approach to IVF could provide [...]

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According to statistics, thousands of women are using the service to terminate unwanted foetuses; in some cases up to nine times. The abortions are understood to cost up to £1,000 every time, with five out of every six repeat terminations being requested by a woman who is unmarried.   In 2010, 189,000 terminations took place, with [...]

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My gorgeous little girl Heidi was born on April 22 – weighing a healthy 7lb 6oz – blissfully unaware of the furore of which she would soon be the focus. The reaction to my article about jogging while pregnant, published in last week’s Mail on Sunday, has been overwhelming. Twitter has been awash with people [...]

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The father of a six-week-old baby girl has been arrested, along with the child’s uncle, on suspicion of attempted murder after allegedly trying to bury her alive in the belief it would protect his other children from illness. A worker at a burial ground in Pilkhuwa, 100km south-west of New Delhi, alerted police after he [...]

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Babies in special care units may soon be able to stay close to their mothers thanks to a revolutionary incubator design. The hi-tech BabyBloom can be fitted across the bed of a new mother allowing her to bond with her baby even as it needs to be in the special environment of an incubator. Such [...]

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The case of a baby girl who was allegedly buried alive in the state of Uttar Pradesh has shocked many Indians, as the BBC’s Sanjoy Majumder reports. Inside a filthy paediatric ward at a government hospital in Meerut, a short drive from Delhi, two-month old Radhika lies quietly on a bed. Incredibly frail and weak, [...]

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A controversial non-profit group is giving thousands of drug-addicted women money to be sterilised. The group hangs stark adverts in clinics and homeless shelters in North Carolina, which read, ‘Don’t let a pregnancy ruin your drug habit,’ and ‘She has her daddy’s eyes… and her mommy’s heroin addiction.’ Project Prevention founder Barbara Harris, 59, said [...]

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A young mother-to-be who was told she would never become pregnant due to a rare condition has decided to keep her miracle baby even though the birth could leave her experiencing labour-like pains forever. Seven months pregnant Debbie Mills, 23, was diagnosed with complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS) in October 2009. CRPS is a chronic [...]

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He became a father for the fourth time just a few weeks ago. And now Bruce Willis’ wife Emma Heming has given his fans a first glimpse of their baby daughter. The model has posted an adorable photo on Twitter of the Hollywood actor cuddling little Mabel Ray in his arms. How adorable! Bruce Willis’ [...]

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Two in five new mothers have struggled to cope with the demands of parenting during the first few weeks after birth, with a similar amount admitting getting ‘angry’ with their baby, according to a poll. A further one in five were frequently very upset at their child’s crying during the first eight weeks, a survey [...]

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What every mother wants for Mother’s Day: healthy children. A free mobile service called Text4Baby sends breaking health information to new and expecting mothers. Participants in the program receive between one and three text messages each week informing them of health alerts or offering advice for breastfeeding, labor or other prenatal issues. The alerts also [...]

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Babies born after labour is induced have less risk of dying but a higher risk of admission to a special-care unit, a study suggests. The British Medical Journal analysis of 1.2m births in Scotland between 1981 and 2007 also found no increased chance of a Caesarean section – contrary to previous findings. The study looked [...]

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Her eyes wide with fear and pain, Théthé – who is haemorrhaging and has a fever – groans and pushes as she lies on a brown vinyl mattress, slick with blood and amniotic fluid, in one of the worst places in the world to be a mother (pdf). After a final push, a nurse holds [...]

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Tania Mirmothari was worried sick. The previous night, the 19-year-old from Wakefield, West Yorkshire, had had yet another drunken one-night stand. Carefree at the time, the following morning she’d woken with a thumping hangover, horrified at the realisation she might be pregnant. There was only one thing for it: Tania went to her local walk-in [...]

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Police in northern India have arrested a baby girl’s father and uncle for allegedly trying to bury her alive. The two-month-old baby’s father said he had been advised by a spiritual guru to bury her to help secure the good health of his next child, police allege. Baby Radhika has acute malnutrition and is receiving [...]

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Eleven-year-old Courtney Barnes shows me the patchwork of scars that criss-cross her midriff, pushing her tummy button several inches out of place. Her mother, Juliet, smiles proudly. ‘Brave, isn’t she?’ she says, kissing her daughter on the forehead. Next to her, another mum shows me a picture of her one-day-old son, Leon, lying on his [...]

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A couple who had IVF treatment after struggling to conceive for years have advertised their 18 leftover embryos on Craigslist so they can donate them to others in need. Deb and Kevin McCrea had two boys after undergoing fertility treatment and a baby girl after In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) when they were left with 18 [...]

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New fathers could take up to six months of paid leave from work under controversial plans  at the heart of the Queen’s Speech yesterday. Ministers said proposals were chiefly designed to make Britain more business-friendly and boost the economy, with measures to rein in a £1billion-a-year employment tribunal bonanza, reform the banking sector and lift [...]

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It is unnerving to find something you agree with in a Queen’s speech in the middle of a government that is as rebarbative as any you can remember, but there it is. I agree with the coalition policy on parental leave. Explained by the MP Liz Truss on ConservativeHome far better than she defended it [...]

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Jessica Simpson wants to cry every time she looks at her newborn baby. The singer-turned-actress gave birth to her first child, a daughter named Maxwell Drew, over a week ago. While she has remained silent about how she and her new family are doing until now, Jessica has revealed she is besotted with her little [...]

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Bob Geldof has had plenty of time to adjust to his new grandson’s name after his daughter Peaches chose it before the baby was even born. But two weeks after she gave birth to Astala Dylan WIllow Geldof-Cohen, the Live Aid rocker is struggling to even pronounce his grandson’s name. Speaking on ITV show Lorraine [...]

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Niger is the worst country on earth in which to be a mother, according to a report by Save the Children. The charity’s annual Mothers’ Index uses statistics covering female and child health and nutrition, as well as prospects for women’s education, economic prosperity and political participation in its assessment of 165 countries. Niger’s current [...]

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As she clutches her newborn baby Paula Lackie has more reason than most new mums to feel euphoric. After more than two decades of trying 7lb Isla is a ‘little miracle’ who has defied doctors’ by becoming Paula’s first child. The proud mother, who is now 43, was just 21-years-old when doctors shattered her dreams [...]

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A last-minute change of plan meant that Sergeant Tim Goldsmith was home in time to see his son being born. Not only that, but he would be the one to deliver his newborn in a cramped bathroom at his wife’s parent’s barn in Cass County, Kansas. On Friday night, the 25-year-old arrived back from deployment [...]

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They say being a bride and becoming a mother are two of the best days in a woman’s life. And Danielle Clewlow managed to achieve both in one day, when just after saying her vows, she gave birth to a bouncing 7Ib 7oz baby boy. Incredibly, just-married Danielle and her new husband Aaron, 25, even [...]

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Above a cheap mobile phone shop in a chaotic street in north Delhi, there is a grimy apartment whose peeling walls are decorated with photographs of adoring mothers nursing their babies. The woman cooing at her child in the biggest portrait is beautiful, white and affluent-looking — in stark contrast to the flat’s five residents, [...]

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Celebrities are turning into mummy moguls, using their pregnancies as a way to substantially increase their income. In an attempt to extend their shelf life, a growing number of underemployed, or under-the-radar celebrities are using parenthood as their career Plan B. For celebrities like Jessica Simpson, Kendra Wilkinson and Tori Spelling, their baby bumps have [...]

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When Stevie Caffrey collapsed only days after giving birth, doctors warned she would die without a heart transplant. Fearing she was too weak for such an operation, they inserted an electric pump to keep her heart beating while she waited for a donor. But now Miss Caffrey is off the transplant list – after the [...]

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The billionaire father of Linda Evangelista’s baby wanted her to abort their son, her lawyer has claimed as the supermodel meets her former boyfriend in court over childcare support. And taking the stand, François-Henri Pinault admitted he had broken up with the supermodel after discovering she was pregnant four months into their relationship. ‘I didn’t [...]

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In Ethiopia, a lack of awareness of the importance of skilled hospital deliveries, cultural beliefs and transport challenges in rural areas are causing a high number of deaths during childbirth, say officials. Only 10% of deliveries take place within health facilities, according to the Ethiopia’s latest demographic health survey results. Nevertheless, the figure is a [...]

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A new mother loves to cuddle her newborn baby but she can’t pick her up – because she collapsed with a devastating stroke during pregnancy. Claire Gibbs battled through despite being given just a one-in-ten chance of survival. However she was left paralysed down her left side and struggles to take even a few steps. [...]

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Two premature twins given 10 times the prescribed amount of morphine at a scandal hit hospital would have probably survived an inquest has been told. The drug was given to Alfie and Harry McQuillan after they had been born 13 weeks early. An expert in premature babies said on the balance of probabilities the tiny [...]

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