State control over women's bodies is an unforeseen outcome of the Covid-19 crisis | Emma Barnett

A U-turn on women’s ability to access home abortions and the cancellation of IVF means they have less say over their fertility

It’s been quite a week to have a womb in the UK.

First, pregnant women were suddenly categorised as vulnerable, and advised to stay home by the government. But then some of them were told to come back into work by their employers – including the riskiest of all, the NHS.

Simply put, we'd follow what Australia and the US already do: speak to the GP on the phone and take two pills at home

Related: Can't move in with your partner? Here's how to survive isolating without them | James Greig

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Pregnant coronavirus patient pleads for public to stay home - video

A heavily pregnant woman with coronavirus has begged the public to stop going out in an emotional video from her hospital bed. Karen Mannering, 39, said she had pneumonia in both lungs and had been ill for two weeks. 'I'm fighting for me and my baby,' she said. 'I've got three kids at home and a husband I can't see. Just don't go out, it's not worth it.'

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Pregnant Covid-19 patient: 'Stop going out'

Heavily pregnant woman with double pneumonia urges people to stay home

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Struggling to breathe, a heavily pregnant British woman has pleaded with people to stop going out as she battles coronavirus in hospital.

In a video posted to Facebook on Wednesday, Karen Mannering said she had pneumonia in both lungs and had been ill for two weeks.

Related: Coronavirus UK: how many confirmed cases are in your local area?

What do the restrictions involve?

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Mothers say they are being kept at work in UK as fathers stay home

Charities hit out at firms’ unequal coronavirus stance as pregnant women also lose out

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Mothers with school-age children are being told they cannot work from home during the coronavirus pandemic, while fathers at the same companies are encouraged to do so, according to organisations providing legal advice and support for parents.

Legal advice lines have also been inundated with calls from pregnant women who have been made redundant while male workers have been kept on, and others who have been told they must go to work or face the sack despite being categorised as a vulnerable group in government guidance.

What do the restrictions involve?

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NHS trusts begin suspending home births due to coronavirus

Giving birth in hospital would ease pressure on resources, say experts, as inquiries for services rise

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NHS services in the UK have begun suspending home births in response to the coronavirus, with professional bodies advising pregnant women who have symptoms of Covid-19 to give birth in hospital.

Experts have urged caution over home births, saying that while they may seem a logical move in the current climate of physical distancing they can require additional resources and are not suitable for women who may have coronavirus.

Due to #Covid_19, will be temporarily suspending our homebirth services so we can provide safe care to all women having a baby with us. Your midwife will have discussed this with you, we appreciate your co-operation and apologise for the inconvenience.

The diverging approaches to school closures may stem from the considerable uncertainty around the extent to which children are playing a role in spreading Covid-19.

2/2 We are currently advising against homebirth for anyone with suspected or diagnosed Covid-19, due to the continuous monitoring and medical backup that is needed to keep you and your baby safe. More here: https://t.co/soenw0wZaT #covidmaternity @RCObsGyn

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Pregnant in a pandemic: how will coronavirus affect me and my baby?

With antenatal classes canceled, doctor’s offices closing and restrictions on non-patients, such as fathers, Covid-19 has added a whole new level of anxiety to my first pregnancy

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A recurrent anxiety terror keeps flashing intrusively through my head: I’m in the throes of labor, surrounded by masked strangers, and I don’t recognize a single face around me. This vision began three weeks ago, when I first realized that this pandemic was rearranging my pregnancy into a constellation of uncertainty. Already navigating the uncharted waters of my first pregnancy, I now feel completely adrift.

The changes have already started. Last week, I went to the hospital alone for an anatomy scan, an ultrasound that can detect a number of abnormalities from heart defects to spina bifida. Up until the day of my appointment, I was excited that my husband would hold my hand as we watched our baby squirm around on the screen. Instead, that morning the nurse called to let me know non-patients wouldn’t be allowed to enter the hospital.

Related: SuperDads and magic potions: Italian kids’ life in lockdown

Related: No elevated risk of coronavirus in pregnancy, experts say

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UK abortion law briefly changes during Covid-19 outbreak

Guidance, deleted after a few hours, said women could take both early medical abortion pills at home

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The UK government published then deleted changes to abortion law that would have allowed women to access medical terminations without travelling to a clinic, leaving women’s health charities “staggered”.

In the guidance, which was published for at least five hours on Monday, the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) said: “The secretary of state for health and social care has approved two temporary measures in England to limit the transmission of coronavirus (Covid-19) and ensure continued access to early medical abortion services.”

Related: Pregnant healthcare staff under pressure to work during Covid-19 crisis

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Pregnant healthcare staff under pressure to work during Covid-19 crisis

Doctors raise concerns after those in early pregnancy are advised to continue working as normal

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Doctors and nurses are concerned that those in early pregnancy are being told to go in to work, despite government advice to self-isolate at home as they are in the “high risk” category for coronavirus.

The government has advised that all pregnant women should now self-isolate at home during the ongoing coronavirus outbreak along with people who are over 70 or have an underlying health condition.

Related: 'I'm full of dread': Doctors, nurses and cleaners on risking their lives for their job

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Will maternity leave make me invisible?

Taking time out of the office to have a baby makes you think hard about your work and life

Why does it feel like a bigger deal preparing for maternity leave than it does for maternity itself? I look back at first-time me, springing out of the office on maternity leave, young and jowl-less, glowing with naivety and vitamin supplements, and I feel a melancholy affection for that sweet little girl. How little I knew. How simple that brain. This time, no. This time, the prospect of lockdown with a newborn and a five-year-old looming, I am an angry barrel rolling slowly from the building, sloshing with anxiety and ill will.

By the time you read this, I will be gone. I will have ceased to exist in my former identity, a working woman with deadlines and people to chat to by the teapoint and a morning commute. A person of whom more is expected than simply keeping a baby warm and quiet. Not much more, sure – but certainly things like getting to the office on time, performing a certain degree of critical thinking, conversational tact, computer skills, tuna sandwich and, if there’s time, wit.

By the time you read this, I will have ceased to exist in my former identity, a working woman with deadlines

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Will BBC One's The Nest tell the truth about surrogacy?

The new drama won’t shy away from the difficult questions, and has the chance to inform as well as entertain

The first episode of the new BBC drama The Nest makes for fascinating viewing. Dan and Emily are having a baby. They are in love, rich, and live in a massive house in Glasgow. The first episode opens with them debating baby names … but it is not Emily who’s pregnant. After years of trying for a baby they have turned to surrogacy.

They bump into 18-year-old Kaya. She is poor and disenfranchised; the couple are rich and secure. She offers to carry their baby and Emily readily agrees, but Dan worries about the ethics of such an arrangement.

Surrogacy raises the the issue of conflicting rights. Does anyone have the right to their own child?

Related: Outsourcing pregnancy: a visit to India's surrogacy clinics | Julie Bindel

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No elevated risk of coronavirus in pregnancy, experts say

No evidence virus passes to foetus during pregnancy, according to latest research

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Pregnant women do not appear to be more susceptible to severe Covid-19 symptoms and there is no evidence that the virus can pass to a baby during pregnancy, according to new guidance.

The guidelines, issued by the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, Royal College of Midwives and Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, offer reassurance to pregnant women in the UK who until now have not been given any specific details on whether they or their baby are at greater risk.

Related: Coronavirus map: how Covid-19 is spreading across the world

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It’s true we should be kinder… but it’s much harder than that

The #BeKind hashtag is easy to circulate but deciding what kindness is can be complicated

After Caroline Flack’s death, the #BeKind hashtag was retweeted millions of times, its message transferring, in phrase anyway, from the internet to real life, appearing in bookshops and on cupcakes. One clothing brand raised £100,000 for the Samaritans by donating a single day’s profits from its “Be Kind” T-shirts. And so the idea of kindness rinsed the country like a cool wash – a reminder, a plea, a bellow from the kitchen.

I have been thinking a lot about kindness. A couple of years ago, as the concept started to be repeated more and more as a buzzword akin to mindfulness, with self-help books on the subject proliferating, and the TV and film industries announcing their intention to promote it with their programming, I investigated kindness for this magazine. The research took me back to the “happiness industry”, often criticised for displacing attention from the causes of unhappiness. The difference between happiness and kindness, I suggested, was that the former was passive, but the latter active. But since the rise of the hashtag, I’ve started to question this.

Anti-abortion protestors believe they are shouting at scared girls to be kind

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Late diagnosis of ectopic pregnancy 'putting women at risk'

NHS figures show 30 ectopic pregnancies were missed, leading to serious harm in 2017/2018

Women are at risk of serious harm and death because hospitals are not always diagnosing ectopic pregnancies quickly enough, an investigation reveals.

About 12,000 women a year in the UK suffer an ectopic pregnancy – when a fertilised egg grows outside the womb – putting them at risk if a fallopian tube containing the foetus ruptures and causes potentially fatal heavy bleeding.

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'Health workers are too scared to enter': the fight to treat HIV in a São Paulo favela

Young people with HIV in Brazil’s poorest favelas often have no support, but in Boi Malhado, one team is determined to provide vital help

Words and photographs by Sarah Johnson

On a hill overlooking a middle-class neighbourhood and a hospital lies one of São Paulo’s slums – home to about 300 families trying to eke out a living in the largest city in Brazil. Here in Boi Malhado, ramshackle dwellings built with planks of wood and corrugated iron are perched precariously on the hillside. Only recently, one house belonging to a mother and her newborn baby collapsed. Both survived but the remains are there for everyone to see.

Children run up and down narrow passageways between laundry lines and live electric wires; sewers are a hole in the ground covered by a piece of wood; and water access is sporadic – it’s common for the community to go without for days. “Our government is very unfair,” says resident Mariangela Ferreira, 35. “We pay our taxes and we don’t even have the basics.”

Paraisópolis, the largest favela in São Paulo (top); around 300 families live in this particular area of the Boi Malhado favela (bottom left); the remains of a house which collapsed (bottom right)

Sandra Santos (right) talks to residents of Boi Malhado about HIV

A pregnant resident of Boi Malhado stands in her house (top); views in and out of the favela (bottom left and right)

Santos with three teenage residents of Boi Malhado

Thiago Martins and Renata Ferreira in the grounds of Emilio Ribas hospital where they receive treatment for HIV

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