I’m a science factchecker and even I was overwhelmed researching pregnancy and baby advice | Gideon Meyerowitz-Katz

No wonder new parents are at sea over the conflicting information on everything from what to eat to the ‘best’ way to give birth

My wife and I are expecting our first child later this year. We’re going through the gamut of emotions common to all new parents – a heady mix of excitement, terror, and above all a huge and ongoing dose of extreme confusion. In the decades that I’ve been alive on this earth, I’ve never before been confronted with so many choices for every decision, nor a more diverse array of advice on what to choose.

As something of a scientific factchecker, this plethora of parenting options has been a really fascinating adventure for me into how complicated the evidence often is for the advice that new parents get.

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Giant spiders, snakes and storms: what could go wrong with having a baby on a remote, jungle-filled island?

When life in downtown Hong Kong got too intense, my wife and I headed for somewhere very different. Then we decided to start a family …

‘What if the baby comes in the night?” my wife, Allys, asked, looking at the stretch of the South China Sea that separated us from the nearest hospital. “Helicopter,” said a local resident. I looked around me, taking in the thick jungle of trees and roots, crisscrossed with tiny paths, impenetrable to vehicles. “Where’s it going to land?” The man cleared his throat and shrugged. “Better if the baby does not come in the night.”

Three years earlier, in 2015, we had moved to Hong Kong as a pair of young teachers, excited about escaping the grey skies and terrible pay of the UK. Frankly, we were a little bored, and were certain that we wanted to travel across the globe and perhaps never return to the UK, at least not to live.

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From the archive: My four miscarriages: why is losing a pregnancy so shrouded in mystery? – podcast

We are exploring the Guardian Long Read archives to bring you some classic pieces from years past, with new introductions from the authors.

This week, from 2020: After losing four pregnancies, Jennie Agg set out to unravel the science of miscarriage. Then, a few months in, she found out she was pregnant again – just as the coronavirus pandemic hit

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When cancer and pregnancy intersect it is overwhelming in every way – we need better support | Na’ama Carlin

Pregnant people diagnosed with cancer feel isolated and even stigmatised. Oncology and neonatal teams must be able to coordinate effectively

I discovered the lump in my breast during my second trimester. This being my first pregnancy, and as I have no family history of breast cancer, I wasn’t alarmed by this change. When I complained to my antenatal team via Telehealth (I became pregnant during Sydney’s Delta-Covid wave), they said it could be a blocked milk duct. No one suggested I come in for a physical examination, or proposed the changes to my breast were anything but pregnancy-related.

It wasn’t until my GP examined me as part of a standard shared-care appointment that suspicions were raised. He referred me to an urgent ultrasound. Within a week, I was admitted for a biopsy at a cancer centre. Receiving the biopsy result days before Christmas, reality struck: I was pregnant with cancer.

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My ADHD makes motherhood a huge challenge, but it also gives me superpowers | Sarah Marsh

As a child I was ‘away with the fairies’, as an adult I ran for miles. Now I use that energy to make my son’s life amazing

I was once on a list of two people who lost their work passes at the Guardian more than anyone else. I am chronically chaotic: my wardrobe includes unfolded jumpers and items thrown on top of each other. I am driven by what I can only describe as an inner motor that wants to be doing new things at all times.

Given all these symptoms, it’s surprising that it took me until the age of 34 to get a diagnosis of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and it came alongside the birth of my first child. When I was pregnant, it was suggested I might have the condition. As I struggled with the physical and hormonal changes of carrying a child, my mental health plummeted. I was referred to the perinatal mental health team. There, I listed the many symptoms that had plagued my life. ADHD is a lot more than being forgetful. I have had bouts of insomnia so bad that I thought I would never sleep again. My life was driven by impulsiveness that left me ruining relationships and struggling to maintain certain friendships. I was constantly trying to numb an overactive mind.

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Motherhood on ice: lack of suitable men drives women to freeze their eggs

A lack of equal male partners, rather than career or educational ambitions, is why more women are trying to prolong their fertility

Selfish career-driven women. Gullible dupes of the fertility industry. Victims of the patriarchy. When leading anthropologist Marcia C Inhorn first embarked on her decade-long study of why women freeze their eggs, the popular narrative was largely one of derision.

“There was a lot of either blaming women or saying that they’re naïve, stupid and so forth,” says the Yale professor, from a red armchair in her home in New Haven, Connecticut.

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Woman who miscarried fined by NHS for claiming free prescription while pregnant

Expectant mothers are entitled to free medication, but errors and red tape in applying for maternity exemption certificates leave many with bills of hundreds of pounds

A woman who suffered a miscarriage has been fined by the NHS for claiming a free prescription during her pregnancy.

Sadie Hawkes lost her baby before she had received the maternity exemption certificate that entitled her to free prescriptions throughout her pregnancy and the first year after birth. She has now been sent a demand for £56.10 for medication issued the week before her miscarriage. She’s been told that she can’t apply for a certificate retrospectively as she is no longer pregnant.

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MPs condemn failure to tackle ‘glaring’ racial inequalities in UK maternal health

Committee says too many black women receive treatment that falls short of acceptable standards

Ministers have failed to tackle “appalling” and “glaring” racial disparities in maternal health despite repeated promises, MPs have said, as they called for new targets to eliminate inequalities.

In a scathing report, the women and equalities committee said maternal death rates in deprived areas were on the rise, with women in the poorest areas about two and half times more likely to die in childbirth than those in the richest areas.

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Babies of the earthquake: caring for a newborn in the aftermath of the Syria-Turkey disaster – in pictures

For Syrian and Kurdish women who were pregnant or had just given birth, the February quake tipped already vulnerable families into destitution, with little food, water or adequate shelter. Photographer Livia Saavedra documented mothers living in Akbez refugee camp in Turkey

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In a liberal US state, my life-saving abortion cost $55,000

I was flabbergasted by the cost of medical care I could have died without – but surprise fees are standard in a system motivated first and foremost by profit

On 27 January, I was just under six weeks pregnant. My fertility app – one of several pinned on my phone’s home screen, I am reluctant to admit – told me that the embryo growing inside me was the size of a green pea.

That morning, I felt both elated and nervous. Between Zoom calls and spurts of distracted writing, I thought about spilling the beans to my sister, but resisted. After two miscarriages, I was wary of sharing the news too early.

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Emotions around infertility can be raw. Let’s talk about them with solidarity | Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett

It’s important to acknowledge ‘fertility privilege’, but let’s not dismiss those whose privilege has been hard won

I first came across the idea of “fertility privilege” in a podcast by the author Elizabeth Day, who has been admirably open about her desperate desire to be a mother after repeat miscarriages and fertility treatment. The podcast made me cry, though Day would be well within her rights to tell me to stuff my tears, because I got my baby. I joined the club. I have what she terms “fertility privilege”, ie I have conceived and carried a child without too much difficulty.

In an article that caused something of a furore, Day wrote: “We rightly talk about privilege in this era of social change – an era marked by Black Lives Matter and #MeToo – but hardly anyone acknowledges fertility privilege. Those of us who have had complicated journeys to parenthood are only too aware of its existence. … I know how it feels to be the infertile one in a world of apparent abundance. I wouldn’t post about my glorious babies on social media in much the same way as I wouldn’t post about my expansive mansion or my fleet of Bentleys (not that I have any of those), because it’s thoughtless to those who don’t have these things.”

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When did I decide to become a solo mother by choice? I have so many answers – but none are true | Alexandra Collier

A bad breakup, bad dates, a podcast: the series of moments that led to the decision that changed Alexandra Collier’s life – and created a new one

“When did you know that you wanted to be a solo mum?” reporters and friends and strangers often ask me. They wait for a story of a life-altering revelation that crystallised my decision and rerouted my path. That’s because the way we tell – and write – stories, the heroine is usually catapulted out of her life by an event. Lightning strikes. Strangers collide. A ringing phone brings the news. And everything changes.

I’ve crafted various answers to those asking when I chose to become a mother on my own; I’m a writer after all, I can spin a winning anecdote. But none of them are true.

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Third scan could greatly reduce UK breech birth numbers, study suggests

Researcher say making scan at 36-37 weeks routine may also cut risk of severe complications for babies

Giving women a third scan at the end of their pregnancy could dramatically reduce the number of unexpected breech births and the risk of babies being born with severe health problems, research suggests.

Pregnant women in the UK have routine scans at 12 and 20 weeks only, with no further scan offered in the third trimester unless they are considered at risk of a complicated pregnancy. The researchers hope their findings could lead to a change in guidance for clinicians that will improve maternity care.

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‘Forever chemicals’ linked to infertility in women, study shows

Those with higher levels of PFAS in their blood had 40% lower chance of conceiving within a year of trying

Women with higher levels of so-called “forever chemicals” in their blood have a 40% lower chance of becoming pregnant within a year of trying to conceive, according to the first known study on the effect of PFAS on female fertility.

PFAS, or per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, have been found in almost everyone tested for them, with 99% of people in the US contaminated. The research was conducted in Singapore, where contamination levels are lower, but the scientists still found a strong correlation with reduced fertility.

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Beverley Lawrence Beech obituary

Campaigner who fought against the medicalisation of birth and exposed damaging practices that harmed women during labour

In the 1970s, in what the gynaecologist Wendy Savage called “the biggest unevaluated medical experiment in the world”, more than 80% of births took place in hospital, with procedures such as artificial induction of labour commonplace.

The activist Beverley Lawrence Beech, who has died of pancreatic cancer aged 78, was vehemently opposed to the medicalisation of birth, and especially to the disregard of women’s rights and the demonising of home births. For 40 years, as chair of the campaigning group Aims (Association for Improvements in the Maternity Services), Beech was a forceful voice, exposing damaging practices and unethical behaviour, and helping bring about a paradigm shift in maternity care.

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Spanish TV star says surrogate baby is actually her grandchild

Ana Obregón, 68, says her son, Aless Lequio García, expressed desire to have a child before death in 2020

A heated debate in Spain triggered by a 68-year-old celebrity who was reported to have used a surrogate mother in Miami to have a baby took a twist on Wednesday when the woman announced in the socialite magazine ¡Hola! that the baby was actually the daughter of her son who died of cancer in 2020.

The actor and presenter Ana Obregón told ¡Hola! that doctors had encouraged her son, Aless Lequio García, to preserve samples of sperm before he began treatment and that he expressed a desire just before dying to have a child. The samples, she said, were stored in New York.

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One in six people worldwide affected by infertility, WHO reports

Call for access to treatment to be urgently expanded as studies show ‘infertility does not discriminate’

One in six people worldwide are affected by infertility, according to a report that lays bare the scale of the problem.

About 17.5% of the global adult population – roughly one in six – will experience infertility at some point in their lifetime, the 98-page report published by the World Health Organization (WHO) says. The figures are its first estimates of infertility prevalence in more than a decade.

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She lost her child in a home birth. Prosecutors charged her with murder

The medical examiner ruled the death of Kelsey Carpenter’s baby an accident – yet she faces life in prison: ‘I mourn every day’

Kelsey Carpenter was alone in her San Diego apartment when she went into labor on 14 November 2020.

The mother of two had planned a home birth for her third child. But the baby came two weeks earlier than expected, so she delivered on her own, then passed out, records show. When she awoke, her newborn - whom she named Kiera - was not breathing. Despite her attempts at CPR, the baby did not survive.

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A child’s best interests, not the desires of adults, should be at the heart of surrogacy | Sonia Sodha

The Law Commission has gone too far in its proposed guidelines for surrogate parents

Infertility can be deeply painful. There is a lot a compassionate society can – and should – do to make fertility treatment available to those who can be assisted to have a child with medical intervention. Few would disagree though that there are ethical boundaries to this, shaped by children’s interests, not just adult desires.

Last week, the Law Commission drove a coach and horses through that moral frontier – which it framed as an overdue modernisation of the law – by publishing draft proposals to reform the UK’s surrogacy framework. Implicit in them is the, I suspect controversial, assumption that a single man seeking to have a child alone through surrogacy, because he doesn’t want or can’t maintain a committed relationship, presents no greater moral quandary than a couple seeking IVF. How controversial is anyone’s guess: the Law Commission hasn’t canvassed public attitudes.

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