What to do when the baby blues come before the baby does

Antepartum depression affects more than 20% of pregnant women – so why don’t we talk about it?

I was not happy to discover that I was pregnant with my second child. It’s hard to admit that publicly.

There were a lot of reasons for my unease: I had more or less decided to stop at one child, and he was almost three years old. I felt like I had finally found a balance between motherhood and my career. I wasn’t sure that my marriage could take having another baby. And I felt far too old and tired to go through the rigors of pregnancy and the newborn months again.

Related: For pregnant women, sleepless nights can kick in long before the baby arrives

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What can I eat in pregnancy? App aims to answer with help from IBM's Watson

Nutrino, a new app powered by supercomputer Watson, claims to be able to guide women through pregnancy. But is it just another voice among many?

Daffi is pregnant with her third child. On holiday in Thailand recently she wondered whether it was safe for her to eat prawns. She asked her new pregnancy app, which reassured her that she could go ahead and pop the prawn in her mouth.

Related: Why pregnancy is a real pain in the back

Related: Pregnant women: should you be eating more seafood?

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‘No one expects people with disabilities to have a family’

Cerebral palsy didn’t rob Aideen Blackborough of the desire to become a mother – but she faced other obstacles, from prejudice to logistics and, not least, her own fears

Aideen Blackborough’s mum and dad’s attitude to her disability was to see her as simply another of their four children – and because of this “just bloody well get on with it” attitude, Aideen grew up assuming that becoming a mother herself was something that would just happen. “I’d always wanted to be a mum, find the man of my dreams, have several children and live happily ever after,” she says. “My disability didn’t rob me of those maternal wants.”

Today, Aideen is, indeed, a mum – to Jack, a two-year-old bundle of energy who’s at nursery when I visit her at home in Birmingham. A large picture of him as a baby is on the wall behind Aideen – he’s beaming at me throughout our conversation.

I was always eager to prove to people and myself, that I could look after Jack. It was my decision to have a child

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Home births and hospital births in the UK: share your experiences

If you have given birth in the UK recently, either at home or in a hospital unit, we’d like to hear about your experience

According to The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice) healthy women should be provided with the necessary information to choose where they want to give birth, because the often stressful environment of hospitals are no safer for them than their own homes or a midwife-led unit would be. All four possible options for giving birth should be pointed out to them: hospital care, midwifery units in hospitals, midwifery units based in the community and at home. We’d like to hear from anyone who has recently given birth in the UK, either at home or in a hospital unit, and share with us what your quality of care was like. If you are giving birth in the next few months, we’d like to hear about how your care has been so far, and what kind of birth you are planning.

Do you feel you received enough information about the birth options available to you at an early stage? If you opted for a home birth, were there enough resources at your disposal? Alternatively what was your overall experience like if giving birth in a UK hospital unit, from the early stages to the aftercare? What kind of pain relief did you receive? Did you have an epidural or undergo a medical intervention like a caesarean? Whether you have recently given birth, or are due to give birth in the next few months, share your experiences about your care, both good or bad, with us. We will feature some of you stories in our reporting.

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Call to review baby death rates at more than 20 NHS trusts and boards

Inquiry urges those with higher than average stillbirth and newborn death rates to examine their maternity care to see if mistakes were made

More than 20 NHS trusts and health boards in the UK should investigate why they have a higher stillbirth and newborn baby death rate than their peers, an inquiry has recommended.

The trusts and boards should review their maternity care to find out whether mistakes were made or if there were other reasons for a death rate that was more than 10% higher than average, said a national team of experts from MBRRACE-UK (Mothers and Babies: Reducing Risk Through Audits and Confidential Enquiries Across the UK), led by the University of Leicester.

Related: The high number of stillbirths shows we are not listening to women properly | Rebecca Schiller

Related: Better care could save hundreds of babies from stillbirth, says report

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Mexican state votes to ban surrogacy for gay men and foreign people

Tabasco, currently the only state in Mexico allowing surrogacy, has drawn many foreign and gay couples seeking to become parents

A Mexican state legislature has voted to close the door to foreign couples and gay men looking to have a child by surrogacy.

Related: Surrogacy boom in Mexico brings tales of missing money and stolen eggs

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Woman with breast cancer gives birth prematurely to undergo treatment

Heidi Loughlin from Bristol free to take Herceptin drug after her third child is born 12 weeks early

A woman with breast cancer has successfully given birth prematurely so she can have life-saving treatment.

Heidi Loughlin, 32, discovered she had a rare and aggressive form of breast cancer after falling pregnant with her third child. She was diagnosed with inflammatory breast cancer in September after noticing a rash on her breast while breastfeeding her baby son, Tait.

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One in five women giving birth in Australia are 35 or over, data shows

Australian Institute of Health and Welfare also finds average age was 30.1 in 2013, and first-time mothers have an average age of 28.6

More than one in five women giving birth in Australia are now aged 35 or over, the latest official figures show.

The latest birth data from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare shows the proportion of mothers aged 35 and older who gave birth increased by four percentage points to 22% in the decade to 2013.

Related: Indigenous death rate in childbirth comparable to developing countries

Related: A caesarean must be a choice – whatever the circumstances | Lisa Hallgarten

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Obesity endangers health of women and their babies, warns chief medical officer

Sally Davies’ report says children of obese women may develop health problems, and warns pregnancy is not a time to eat for two

Obesity is endangering women’s health and that of their babies, the chief medical officer has warned in a report which aims to put to rest for ever the myth that pregnant women should eat for two.

Prof Sally Davies looks across the spectrum at women’s health, from the effects of violence and female genital mutilation (FGM) to eating disorders, cancer survival and the menopause, but she says there is one underlying major concern across the lifespan. Obesity will shorten women’s lives and there is a danger that their children will be stillborn or grow up with health problems themselves, such as obesity, diabetes and high blood pressure.

Related: Weight gain between pregnancies linked to stillbirths and infant deaths

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Obesity endangers health of women and their babies, warns chief medical officer

Sally Davies’ report says children of obese women may develop health problems, and warns pregnancy is not a time to eat for two

Obesity is endangering women’s health and that of their babies, the chief medical officer has warned in a report which aims to put to rest for ever the myth that pregnant women should eat for two.

Prof Sally Davies looks across the spectrum at women’s health, from the effects of violence and female genital mutilation (FGM) to eating disorders, cancer survival and the menopause, but she says there is one underlying major concern across the lifespan. Obesity will shorten women’s lives and there is a danger that their children will be stillborn or grow up with health problems themselves, such as obesity, diabetes and high blood pressure.

Related: Weight gain between pregnancies linked to stillbirths and infant deaths

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Pro-choice Irish women go public on being 'exiled' by need for an abortion

X-ile Project challenges stigmatisation of abortion in Ireland by publishing photographs of women forced to travel to Britain by Republic’s near-total ban

Eleven Irish women who have travelled to Britain for abortions are allowing their names and faces to be published on the internet to highlight Ireland’s near-total ban on terminations.

The 11 are the first wave of an unprecedented project launched on Thursday to coincide with World Human Rights Day that will see dozens of women from Ireland going public about taking the abortion trail across the Irish Sea.

Related: Northern Ireland law on abortion ruled 'incompatible with human rights'

Related: Doctors from 44 countries call on Ireland to relax abortion laws

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Half of perinatal suicides by women 'could be prevented by better care'

Study finds those who suffer severe mental health problems during or after pregnancy are let down by poor resources and failures to spot warning signs

Around half of suicides by women while pregnant or after giving birth could be prevented by better standards of care, experts have said.

The Confidential Enquiry into Maternal Deaths, based at the University of Oxford and partially funded by NHS England, found that women who suffer serious mental health problems during or after pregnancy are being let down by a lack of resources and failures to spot warning signs.

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Pregnant mothers and the dangers of iodine deficiency

It’s a vital constituent of dairy and white fish, and crucial to the brain development of babies – yet many women are unknowingly deficient in iodine. Are supplements the answer?

Every mother knows how important nutrition is in pregnancy; specifically taking folic acid and vitamin-D supplements to ensure their growing baby gets the best start. Yet few have given much thought to iodine; but they should – it boosts brain development in the womb, and iodine deficiency can cause learning disabilities in the child.

Now evidence is building that suggests many women in the UK are iodine deficient and that low levels during pregnancy may put the unborn child at risk. In response, iodine experts are calling for government recommendations that pregnant and breastfeeding women take iodine supplements to make up for the deficiency. Here’s what they say about iodine deficiency and what needs to be done:

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How long will it take me to recover after giving birth?

In the age of celebrities flaunting flat stomachs weeks after giving birth, many women feel insecure about how long it takes them to heal. But a new study suggests it might take several months to get back to normal

“When will I be back to normal after giving birth?” is a common question for pregnant women. And while the traditional answer is “at around the six-week checkup”, the world is now full of celebrities modelling bikinis within a couple of weeks, and mothers on forums saying they’re having sex mere days later. Women who aren’t joyfully trampolining by six weeks may feel they’ve failed to recover quickly enough.

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Fastest mum on the road

Jessica Bruce, currently awaiting confirmation from Guinness World Records that she is fastest buggy-toting marathon runner in the world, talks to Ronnie Haydon

Jessica Bruce ran the Abingdon marathon in 3hr 17min 26sec (chip time). Not too shabby for a 26.2 miler by any means, but the fact that Jessica, 32, ran it while pushing a buggy containing her seven-month-old son, Daniel, made her the national pin-up for mums on the run.

Jessica smashed the previous world record, set at 3hr 31min 45sec, in British Columbia in 2012, and is waiting for Guinness World Records to check all her paperwork. Uncharacteristically, she decided not to fast-track her application.

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Weight gain between pregnancies linked to stillbirths and infant deaths

Swedish research shows women who put on weight after first pregnancy increase risk of stillbirth by 30-50% and likelihood of infant death by up to 60%

Women who put on weight after their first pregnancy are more likely to have a stillborn second child or a baby who dies within the year than those whose weight remains stable, new research shows.

A study carried out in Sweden confirms that the increased risk of the baby’s death in the womb or within its first year of life is real in women who put on even a modest amount of weight – about 6kg (13lb) – between pregnancies. It affects all women, not just those who are overweight or obese when they get pregnant for the first time.

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